


Constellations

by ashtin



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: 3RACHA, College AU, M/M, They are a thing, i am changbin pls send love, idk what else to tag this, minsung will happen, more couples later on?, plot based off original 'troyler' work Major Coincidence, this entire thing gonna be cute, will add characters as they're introduced
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-03-12 20:36:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 26,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13555113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashtin/pseuds/ashtin
Summary: The first time Changbin and Felix meet is a major coincidence. So is everything else that follows after that.





	1. Intro: Lyra

College applications should be free of charge. What, with all the hell one must put himself through just to complete it -with a few extra impressive specs that _might_ not have been extremely necessary- and make it look as best as a stressed high school senior can come up with amid his final few months of preparatory torture. What did universities need _three_ recommendation letters for?! And why would it matter what his standardized testing scores from _sixth grade_ were?? The least the universities could do for their incoming students is waive the fee of applying to get in. It should be enough that the student is even _interested_ in said school in the first place.

Changbin sighed heavily as he crossed another name off his list of possible mentors he could ask a favor from. He managed to obtain two of the three required letters of recommendation over the course of couple weeks without much trouble, but as his luck would have it, getting a third would not come so easily.

He cursed Minho for having it easier when his applications had come around last year. The dancer only needed one letter for his application into the Dance & Theatre department, a branch off the general Music department in which Changbin was applying to…

**TO: Minho-hyungie**

**9:57PM  
** ○ Hyuuuuuuuuuuung. Help.

 Changbin clicked open his YouTube app and scrolled through his uploaded videos. It was satisfying to see the view ratings going up steadily each time he checked them, but discouraging at the same time when he noticed there weren’t any new comment notifications. He wouldn’t mind if it was hate comments at this point, he just needed some sort of acknowledgement from the general public! His friends and fellow classmates’ opinions didn’t count to him, there was too much of a bias behind them no matter how much they reassured him it went unbiased. Changbin didn’t dare share his videos with family members, either.

While his parents were active supporters in his music studies, they had no idea about his independent rapper identity: Spear B.

It was a name he came up with while he and two close friends were toying around with the idea of making themselves into a self-produced rap/singing trio. And while he has agreed that the name might not roll off the tongue as easily as J.one, Changbin would argue to his grave that Spear B was thousands of times better than CB97.

Changbin nearly jumped when his phone chimed three times in a row from where it sat on his work desk. The first two were text notifications, likely replies from Minho, while the third was a special notification tone he set months ago so that none of his YouTube notifications would go unnoticed or ignored.

His fingers itched to check the last notification, but he knew he needed to get help from Minho before anything else. He tapped along the surface of his desk with his free hand and unlocked his phone screen with the other. His interactive home screen wallpaper taunted him, a swirling galaxy made up of billions of tiny stars served as nothing more than a distraction for Changbin. And he reminded himself, once again, to change it once he answered Minho’s messages.

**FROM: Minho-hyungie**

**9:59PM**  
○ with what, my child?  
○ i have a headache. pity me. :(

Changbin smiled at Minho’s silliness, but played along nonetheless.

**TO: Minho-hyungie**

**10:01PM**  
○ aww, poor hyung /: have you taken medicine for it?  
○ make sure to drink plenty of water, too.  
○ this poor child needs guidance.

Minho responded, unsurprisingly, with a selfie of himself using a half empty water bottle as a pillow with a bottle of pain relievers on his bedside table in the shot, too.

Changbin’s soft smile faded into a frown at the sight. Minho looked exhausted. He had eye bags deeper than Changbin had ever seen on his hyung, and fresh sweat still shone around his temples. He figured the dancer must have just finished dance practice for the day and only just gotten back into his dormitory.

**FROM: Minho-hyungie**

**10:03PM**  
○ this hyung needs a nap. ;;  
○ just kidding. what’s up buttercup  
○ i chugged like a liter of water at practice. i’m just sleepy is all.

**TO: Minho-hyungie**

**10:05PM  
**  ○ i don’t want to keep you from getting enough sleep.

Changbin smacked his head against the top of his desk. Of course, Minho would be exhausted! He’s probably drowning in his studies for final exams in his academic classes while also gearing up for dance juries. How insensitive of him to bother the poor boy in the middle of his own personal hell!

**FROM: Minho-hyungie**

**10:06PM  
** ○ no really it’s okay. what’s wrong?

Changbin whined to himself and glared at the application in front of him, but he knew it would be better to get this out of the way now while he had Minho’s attention rather than distracting him further later on when the dancer really wouldn’t be able to afford it. He messaged the older back as quick as possible, forgoing the complaints about how much easier his application was a year prior. The faster they finished their conversation, the better.

**FROM: Minho-hyungie**

**10:10PM**  
○ have you asked chan-hyung?  
○ you know he wrote one of mine right?  
○ he just sent one to one of his friends from australia, too.  
**10:11PM**  
○ HEY DID YOU KNOW HE HAS A FRIEND TRANSFERING HERE  
○ FR O M A U S T R A  LI A

**TO: Minho-hyungie**

**10:13PM**  
○ WHY DIDN’T YOU MENTION CHAN-HYUJNNNGJFAWIEWJOWE  
○ do you think he’ll mind? isn’t he crazy busy with school, too?

He knew Chan wouldn’t mind writing a letter for him at all, but he didn’t want to be a bother to him. On the other hand, he needed another letter for the application deadline. Changbin was kicking himself for not filling out the application sooner, but he was busy, too. From college entrance exams, dance lessons, a part time job, and putting out content for his channel... who could blame him for leaving the application at the back of his brain?

“Changbin-ah~” His mom called from somewhere in the house, “Your uniform is ironed for tomorrow, but I need to know if you want cafeteria lunch tomorrow or if I should make one for you to bring?”

He frowned at the time on his phone screen, it was already late, his mom should be resting, not making him food.

“I’ll just eat cafeteria lunch, mom! You should rest.” He got up to stand in the door frame as his mother paused by his room with his uniform on a hanger. Her smile was full of love and warmth, something he would miss endlessly once he moved into his dormitory later in the year, that is, assuming his application would go through on time and he’d be accepted into the University... Regardless, he made a mental note to visit his parents as often as possible no matter what.

Changbin’s mom brushed past him to hang the pristine uniform on the door frame to his closet, making sure to smooth out any wrinkles it might have acquired on the journey from the laundry room to his bedroom. She hummed in satisfaction and turned to give her son a _look._

“Get some good rest, my son,” Her eyes were crescents as she spoke sweetly with an underlying warning, “Make sure you don’t buy lots of junk food. Make good nutritional choices, okay?”

“I know, I know, don’t worry. Our school doesn’t know the meaning of _good_ food, remember?”

His mother gave and incredulous look before playfully shoving Changbin away. “Are you saying my nutritious food isn’t good?!”

“Noooo,” he argued sweetly. “Only you can master the perfect balance of nutritional and delicious food, mom. You know that!” He circled his arms around her once more and hugged his mother tightly.

“Aigoo, now you’re just trying to flatter me, you know that won’t get you very far.”

“But it will get me delicious _and_ nutritious food from my loving mother almost every day!”

His mother’s laugh filled the room, and probably the rest of the house. Changbin loved the sound, even more when his father’s booming belly laugh was in the mix. He would reminisce about his childhood; memories of his parents and elder sister having family movie nights, game nights, summer vacations were filled with the beautiful laughter. Memories he would treasure for his entire-- * ** _PING_** *

Changbin tore away from his memories and his mother’s laughing ceased at his phone chiming, signaling multiple notifications coming in, one after another. He counted the noise at least seven chimes, but it could have been more as some sounded slightly doubled.

“I’ve never heard that notification tone before, did you change it?” The phone chimed a couple more times while Changbin stood frozen and stared at the device with an incredulous look.

“Yeah,” he lied, nodding slowly before he looked back at his mom. “I changed Minho-hyung’s to a different tone so I would know it was him messaging me. We’ve been chatting a lot about college recently.”

He smiled at her dumbly and relaxed when she returned the smile with the same feeling of love and warmth she arrived with. “Ah, okay.” She caressed his cheek for a moment and added, “Don’t stress yourself over college applications, okay? My sweet son deserves nothing but pleasant experiences and a worry-less life.”

“Mooooooom,” He whined through his smile. Changbin always became emotional when his mother would talk like he hung the moon in the sky. “You’re going to ruin my dark reputation if you keep on like that, you know.”

They both burst into a fit of giggles and bid each other good night after sharing a hug.

Changbin almost tripped over his own two feet on his way back to his desk. He had totally forgotten all about getting the same notification earlier when he was talking with Minho- ah… he should probably check the messages Minho left him first, but:

○  **_LeeLix00 has left a comment on one of your uploaded videos. (5)  
_** ○  **_LeeLix00 has left a ‘Like’ on one of your uploaded videos. (13)_**

  
He stared in complete awe at the condensed notifications displayed across his lock screen.

Someone had watched his videos. All thirteen of them by the looks of the ‘Like’ notifications, and actually left feedback.

He yanked the charging cord out from the bottom of the device and flopped onto his bed. The bed frame creaked angrily against the sudden impact, but Changbin paid it no mind because he had a new _comment!_ He had multiple new comments! He could barely contain himself as he clicked on the first comment notification; it was left on one of his oldest videos from over two years ago. He had recorded the piece on some microphone application in his phone and uploaded it with a plain black background to some generic font that displayed the title across the screen.

Changbin had always tossed around the idea of uploading a video of himself performing the raps he’d written. Viewers/listeners being able to put a face to the name would possibly help bring in views and feedback, but there were too many ‘what if’s that came into play. The biggest being, what if his parents found out? He would like to share his passion with them one day in hopes of their support, but he would make do with keeping everything under his stage name, for now.

○ **_LeeLix00: wOW your flow is so cool. oh my god_**

It was just a faceless comment but Changbin could feel a blush creeping into his cheeks as his lips split into a proud grin.

○ **_LeeLix00: dark is definitely your style, i wish i was this good._**

Changbin wondered if the commenter was into rapping, too. He made a mental note to check the other’s channel once he finished looking at the comments in case they also had uploaded content.

○ **_LeeLix00: yOOOOOOOOOO_**

“Cute,” Changbin grinned to himself. This person’s enthusiasm was contagious, even through texts on a screen.

○ **_LeeLix00: did you make the track yourself, too? goals._**

No, the certain track the commenter referred to was actually done by Chan.

○ **_LeeLix00: wait, this one is my favorite. i hope you upload another one soon! this one was so short but i love it most! awesome work, fam!_**

Changbin almost felt like crying. Only almost. He had his dark reputation to uphold, of course. This person chose his most personal composition as their favorite. It was a short one, only two and a half minutes in length, but it conveyed one of his biggest fears. He wondered for a moment if this person might share the same fears and anxieties expressed in the piece.

Changbin clicked through the notifications a few more times with a satisfied smile resting on his lips. His thoughts returned to the possibility that this person could have their own uploaded content and he quickly pressed on the commenter’s username.

It brought him to a brightly decorated channel with a pastel banner across the top that displayed their username (LeeLix00) in a funky font Changbin swore was nearly identical to the font used for the Disney logos. Changbin didn’t know why, but he found it oddly endearing and cute. Maybe it was the fact that someone who so obviously had a cute and bright persona had somehow found their way to Changbin’s channel, of all places. How on earth did they even find his channel??

He clicked on the “Uploaded Videos” tab and was pleasantly surprised to see a total of four videos listed! The thumbnails were each a different pastel color with song titles displayed in the same funky font on the banner.

Changbin paused at one in particular; it was a pastel green thumbnail titled “Sexy Back,” it had the highest view count of a couple hundred thousand views. Just what part of his own content was “ _goals_ ”? Changbin would very much argue that this person’s view count was much more “ _goals”_ than anything of his.

The rapper didn’t know what he expected the video’s content to be, but he definitely did not expect to be met with a pair of bright brown eyes and a constellation of freckles lain across fair skin. The angelic features belonged to a boy who Changbin assumed had just pressed the record button on the video camera. Said boy smiled brightly at the camera and backed away to join four other boys while they stretched in what looked to be a small dance studio. They continued stretching when the titled song began playing through the room and Changbin’s eyes roamed from one boy to the next, wondering which one of them could be the owner of the channel.

Eventually the boys began a routine to the music and Changbin continued watching the videos until he’d seen all four. He could tell why the first video had the most views, though. The boys were _good_. All five of them were extremely talented in the art, but Changbin’s eyes were almost always on the freckled boy. They were all good, but he was great. Insanely great, Changbin could argue. To say that the boys had impressed him would be quite the understatement.

Changbin sighed quietly to himself, he wanted to know which of the boys had been his mysterious commenter.  He had initially thought the boy turning the camera on in the first video might have been the channel owner, but then it was a different boy turning the camera on in each of the other videos, so he ruled that possibility out with a frown. All he could take away from the few videos he watched was that the commenter was, indeed, a dude who really enjoyed dancing.

Changbin ignored the small voice inside his head reminding him he could always _ask_ the channel owner to specify which person he was in the videos. But he knew that if the boy wanted his viewers to know, he would have said so in the video description, or even have a solo video of himself uploaded along side the others. Changbin suspected the kid might be in the same boat as himself… it would be hypocritical to ask for someone else’s identity when you don’t want to disclose your own.

The image of the boys in the video that Changbin had left paused was replaced with Chan’s name and number on the screen as his ringtone blasted through the speaker in time with the vibrations of the phone. Changbin didn’t hesitate to answer.

“Hyung?”

“Ah, you’re still up?” Chan sounded so tired, Changbin thought. He answered his hyung quickly, not wanting to waste any of his time.

“I mean, yeah, it’s the weekend and I’m working the late shift tomorrow afternoon, so…” He trailed off. He knew the older would not have called him without a reason. There was no sense in boring him with minor details, even though Changbin knew very well that this hyung would drop everything he was doing if one of his precious dongsaengs called him, if only to just talk about how their day had went.

“Oh, well that’s a good thing! You should still try to get a good amount of sleep every night, you know..”

Changbin smiled softly at his words, “You too, Hyung. Are _you_ eating enough over there? Do I need to bring groceries next time I visit?”

Changbin could hear the others giggles from the other end of the line.

“Don’t worry about me, Binnie. Woojin-ah doesn’t even let me _think_ about skipping a single meal these days, you know that!”

They laughed out loud, both boys knew exactly how true the statement was.

“Anyway… I called because Minho mentioned to me that you might need one more reference letter for your applications. Is that right?”

Changbin straightened upright in his bed. “Um, yeah. He told me that you wrote one for him last year, and I mean, only if you aren’t too busy, Hyung. I wouldn’t want to bother you with something when you need to focus on your studies or—”

Chan coughed shortly, interrupting the younger, “I really don’t mind, Binnie.”

Changbin deflated, relieved to hear the other’s words.

“Plus, you _are_ entering the same department, so it will look good coming from a top student from the same department!”

Changbin sputtered and rolled his eyes as Chan’s giggled filtered through the speaker once again. Changbin missed this giggly hyung a lot.

“Ah, Binnie, I am so glad you chose the same University. I miss you and the younger boys so much.” Chan sighed. “Minho and Woojin keep me sane, but it just isn’t the same without everyone else, you know?”

Changbin smiled sadly. He understood exactly what Chan meant. “Mhmm. I see Jisung, Hyunjin, and Seungmin almost every day, but I get what you mean.”

The boys at University were only an hour’s worth of a drive away, but it was nearly impossible to find a time when all seven of them were free to hang out.

Changbin giggled as a sudden thought came to him, “Ah, Hyunjinnie has made a cute new friend recently.”

Changbin’s smile widened when he heard the surprised gasp come from the other end of the line, “Is that so?!”

Their conversation continued for a while longer, Changbin had forgotten all about his not-as-mysterious-as-before mysterious commenter and had just let the conversation flow

They ended the call with two promises; firstly, that Chan would get the recommendation letter done and emailed to Changbin by the following afternoon, and second, that they would hang out with the other boys as much as possible over the upcoming summer break!

The younger’s eyes went wide once he glanced at the time displayed on his digital clock that sat on his bedside table. He had talked with Chan for nearly two hours! He couldn’t even remember the last time he talked on the phone with _anyone_ for that long. But Changbin supposed if was going to spend hours on the phone with any one of his friends, the ever chatty Channie-hyung would definitely be the one!


	2. Intro: Aquarius

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felix makes new friends and Changbin sees a familiar face, or well... part of one.

**EARLY MAY:**

Felix’s eyes screamed at him while he flipped through the last few pages of his report once again. The time was well past midnight, but he had to make sure the paper was nothing less than perfect. It was his last assignment and a major grade that could possibly interfere with his early graduation if he didn’t get full marks for it. He did _not_ want to chance that in the slightest!

He dragged a hand down the length of his face and leaned back into the mountain of pillows positioned behind him on the bed. His phone would serve as a fantastic distraction, as it had done just an hour earlier when he had found himself in a YouTube black hole of-

○ **_SpearB99 ‘Liked’ your comment on the video ‘’If [Original Rap]’’  
_** ○ **_SpearB99 has left a ‘Like’ on your video, “Sexy Back”_**

Felix’s cheeks flushed, and his ears were burning, fatigue forgotten. He had spent nearly an hour going through SpearB’s videos and falling in love with the stranger’s voice and his rapping style. He had written embarrassing comments of admiration on at least five of the thirteen available videos and now the same person he’d just fanboyed over for an hour had watched one of _his_ dance videos?!

Felix wanted to freak out! He wanted to scream out of embarrassment because of ALL the videos he had to go and watch SEXY BACK?!

It wasn’t like the guy knew which one of the members in the video was him, but Felix had been _center_ for that dance. And some of the moves he’d done… Felix’s cheeks flushed even deeper red than before and his ears were on fire. Even if it was impossible to tell that _he_ was indeed the one who had left the comments on SpearB’s videos, he knew that there was no way this person hadn’t watched him in the _Sexy Back_ video _._

Felix threw his phone to the edge of his bed and turned to sink his face into the pillows behind him, willing them to swallow him hole instead of having to go through the embarrassment he was feeling with his entire being.

**LATE JULY:**

Felix pulled on the designer tie that fit a little _too_ tightly around his neck to allow a bigger flow of oxygen access to his lungs.  The uniform he was chosen to model for was beautiful but unpractical. If he could make any suggestions to the designer Felix would point out that it’d probably be more comfortable for the dress shirts to come with a pre-tied necktie for all the boys’ sakes.

There were two other boys shooting with him for the uniform advertisement, each wearing the winter and gym counterparts of the same uniform. Neither one conversed with each other or even made eye contact with Felix, they only paid him any attention during his solo shoots or when he was paired with the girl who wore the spring and summer uniform, too.

“She was totally checking you out, bro!” One of the boys, the one in winter-wear, bless him, had come up to Felix on their lunch break. It was late summer now and Felix thought the poor boy must have been suffering in so many layers.

Felix spied a drop of sweat falling behind the boy’s neck and immediately offered up his hand-held electric fan to him to which he graciously accepted with a sheepish grin.

He thought through each word before answering, “Really? I didn’t… notice.” His speech was slow, but he applauded himself for keeping his wording steady.

The boy’s eyes widened, but there was nothing to indicate that he noticed or cared much about Felix’s slower speech. “Seriously?!”

Felix smiled a little to himself and nodded at the boy.

“I was too busy… trying not to, uh… _melt_?” He finished in English, the basic vocabulary escaping him in the moment.

“Whoa.” Now he’d done it. The boy would probably think he was some sort of weirdo foreigner who hadn’t even bothered to learn Korean before moving here.

Felix’s ears burned in embarrassment when the boy took a step closer to him and studied his face with his nose just inches away from Felix’s own.

“You have a really cool accent! Where are you from?”

Felix’s sigh could have been comparable to that of a deflating balloon. Well, that did not go as bad as he thought it could have.

“Uh, Australia.” Felix deadpanned.

The boy’s eyes lit up with recognition, “Oh, neat! I have a hyung from Australia, too!”

Felix raised his eyebrows at him, surprised, “Oh? Small world!”

The boy nodded and extended his free hand out to Felix. “My name is Hyunjin, by the way. And you can totally speak to me in English if that is easier or more comfortable for you. I know enough to understand you. And around the managers I can translate anything you might not catch,” Hyunjin gasped, eyes bright before nearly yelling out his newfound idea. “I CAN BE YOUR IRL SUBTIBTLES!”

Felix accepted his handshake with a shy smile and tried to suppress his laughter.

“My name is Felix. Thank you for the offer, it really does mean a lot to me that you would do that, but I am trying to stay away from English as much as possible since I need to improve on my Korean...” Felix was amused at the thought of ‘irl subtitles’, but he knew that they wouldn’t be doing him any good. He needed to get better at Korean, and the faster that happened the better it would be for his and everyone else’s sake.

Hyunjin’s smile never faltered, “I can help you, then!” He offered quickly and the same sheepish smile as before when Felix looked up at him, surprised. He turned the hand-held fan back on him when he noticed small beads of sweat that had broken through the layer of makeup around Felix’s temple.

“I’d like that a lot, thank you.”

Hyunjin shook his head, smiling.

“No need to thank me! I have a feeling we will probably be placed together for shoots like this more often,” Hyunjin paused to lean in and whisper, “Because, no lie, you and I are the most handsome teenagers our company has signed at the moment.”

He straightened up and observed Felix head to toe, as if he was analyzing him. “I mean, I assume you’re a teenager. How old are you?”

“I will be eighteen in September.” Felix answered the question with confidence. He knew he had a baby face, so Hyunjin was probably thinking he looked _much_ younger than eighteen. He got that a lot. It was a big part of the reason he was casted by this company; all of his shoots up ‘til this one had been for pre-teen clothing and the occasional toy commercial meant to appeal to young boys.

“Really? I just turned eighteen in March! You can speak comfortably with me, if you would like to.” Hyunjin’s smile grew impossibly wider and his eyes turned into beautiful crescents. Felix was momentarily stunned at the other boy’s beauty; he hadn’t been kidding when he said they were the most good-looking teens in the company, but Hyunjin was the superior visual between them by far.

“Ah, okay!”

The boys cleaned up their lunches together when Felix was called back to get his makeup redone for their next shoot. Hyunjin followed Felix to the hair and makeup area because he knew they would also be calling him back there eventually.

They sat at twin vanities in silence while Felix got his makeup done, Hyunjin playing a zombie shooter game on his phone while he waited on his turn. He glanced up from his phone for a moment while he had to wait for a level to load and gasped quietly when he saw Felix’s face in the mirror catty-cornered from him.

“You have freckles.” Hyunjin stared, wide-eyed.

Felix blushed. “Mhmm,” was all he could get out in attempt to _not_ mess up the makeup stylist’s hard work thus far.

Hyunjin sighed, exasperated. “That’s it, I think you are going to have to take the “Best Looking” title from me at this point. I don’t deserve it anymore, not when _those_ exist on your -already perfect- little face.”

Felix strained to keep himself from laughing aloud. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he murmured when the makeup stylist stepped away for a moment.

“So,” Hyunjin decided to change the subject. “Which high school will you be attending? My friends and I all attend Seoul-“

“I, uh, I’m not going to high school…” Felix murmured again as the lady worked to accentuate the array of freckles across his cheeks with an eyebrow pencil and an assortment of creams and powders.

“Is the agency getting you a tutor? They did that for Mark-hyung while he was still in high school, like, forever ago.”

“No, no tutor, either.”

Hyunjin looked back up from his game, confused, just as Felix was hopping down from his makeup chair so the two of them could switch places.

“I’m uh… _early admittance_ …?” Hyunjin’s confused expression stayed the same as he moved to take the seat that Felix had vacated. “To, you know, university?”

“Oh, seriously?! That is actually so cool, Felix! You must be super smart, oh my gosh!”

“Hyunjin-ah! Keep still!” The makeup stylist scolded the overexcited boy after he flailed about in his seat with excitement.

“Sorry.” He answered, clearly embarrassed by his sudden outburst.

Felix chuckled at the sight. Hyunjin was like an easily excitable puppy, but a very unpredictable one.

“Eh,” Felix sighed, “I’m… okay when it comes to academics, but I’m going for a dance major with a minor in music.”

“That’s exciting! How did you happen to land a spot all the way over here, though?” Hyunjin gestured around the room, implying that he meant their modeling agency, and probably South Korea as a whole, too.

“I’ve been modeling since I was really young, and my parents really wanted me to continue with it. Signing on here was the only way they let me come to South Korea for my dance and music studies, too. They mailed off my profile and portfolio to a few other agencies, but this one responded first and had the most promising benefits and such. And yeah… that’s how that happened.” He rushed out all at once, having kind of rehearsed the answer a few times on the flight here. He knew he was bound to be asked such a question at some point, it had just taken a little longer for someone to ask him than he’d originally thought.

Felix took a deep breath to calm his quickened heartrate. Had he even said that all in the correct order? Did it make enough sense for Hyunjin to understand him, or would he have to reiterate once more? Felix was so done with Korean for one day, but there was Hyunjin, smiling at him terrifically, once more. Talking to Hyunjin had come easily to him; he was comfortable and that made Felix grateful.

“That seems fair enough.” Hyunjin’s smile had dimmed, but still held the initial warmth and reassurance that Felix was starting to grow accustomed to.

Hyunjin sighed after a moment, “I’m jealous of you, though. All my hyungs go to university and I still have a whole year left until I can join them.”

Felix pouted, thinking of something to say to sympathize with Hyunjin, but the other boy shook his head with a smile, “It’s okay, though! I still have Seugminnie, Jisung-ah, and Jeonginnie to keep me company at school.”

Hyunjin didn’t miss the bewildered look on Felix’s face as he tried to process the overload of information and names. “Don’t worry, I’ll introduce them to you over time. I am more than sure that you will fit right in with our friend group.”

Felix opened his mouth to respond, stopping short to sort the mess of a sentence out in his head, but Hyunjin was being dragged away by other staff members to change him into the next outfit before he could get a single word out. He would have sulked, but he was being whisked away by another staff member in the opposite direction to change his own outfit.

-

“Felix-ssi, we’re going to do a closeup of the tie for the next shoot. It will have just below your eyes and down to the bottom tip of the tie, alright?”

_Ah,_ Felix thought to himself, _the selling point must be the tie. That’s probably why it’s so suffocating._

“Okay!” He answered politely. He had wondered why the makeup stylist had touched up the makeup from around his freckles to make them visible. She had only supplied that they were an ‘eye-catcher’ and that this particular shoot would be featured on a billboard and on small ads all over the city. But no pressure, Felix.

“Good work today, everyone!”

Being the last shoot of the day, Felix made sure to make a round to thank the staff members and the photographer, and lastly his managers and director, who stopped him before he could go back to his changing room.

“Felix, we were discussing the possibility of bleaching your hair for the next schedule…”

**MID-AUGUST: CHANGBIN**

Changbin’s body swayed with each harsh jerk and turn the subway train made. It was early, way too fucking early, for someone who loved sleep as much as he did. No one should ever have to leave the warm comfort of their bed at an ungodly time such as 4:30AM to be dressed and out the door by 5:00AM in order to catch the 5:15AM train to make it to their destination by 6AM. If he had been in his right mind he would have asked to meet his soon-to-be new manager at a more reasonable time that was _not_ 6:30AM. What was worse was that after the meeting he would have to hop back on the train to make it back in time for his shift at his current work location by 10AM!

It was only 5:26AM, now. Changbin sat in his seat quietly and observed all the shift workers who were either just getting off and were on their way home, or just starting their day, like Changbin. He envied those who were headed for home and pitied the others who shared his fate. Among the other passengers around him there were businessmen in their suits, sipping at disposable coffee cups and browsing on their cell-phones or reading the occasional newspaper. Hospital workers wore their scrubs without the layering Changbin was used to seeing them in due to it being late summer and still disgustingly humid out, especially in the morning fog. It made Changbin feel sticky just thinking about it. There was a high school student, Changbin assumed they were taking additional classes over the summer to help their grades, wearing a uniform that he did not miss even the tiniest bit.

_They must have a long commute to be traveling so early in the morning._ He thought to himself before sending silent well wishes of encouragement to the student.

It was 5:35AM when Changbin decided that he had grown bored of people-watching. He moved his attention to the advertisements that littered the walls of their train car. He didn’t find any of them very interesting, but some were at least quite informative.

He was reminded of the lone student as his eyes passed over a rather large poster showing off some new upgraded school uniform. The entire left half of the poster showed a close-up of the bottom of a boy’s face, one that had Changbin furrowing his eyebrows in thought. The boy had cute lips, but that was beside the point. Changbin stared above them, awestruck at the mass amount of freckles that dotted the model’s otherwise perfect and porcelain complexion.

Changbin scratched at his unmade hair. He couldn’t understand why the model’s unique features seemed so strangely familiar to him.

“Oh!” Changbin coughed out loud, earning stares that went unnoticed by him. He was too focused on pulling his phone out from his jeans pocket and dialing a phone number from his memory because he just couldn’t be bothered to scroll through the list of contacts in his phone.

“Hello?” A sleepy voice answered on the third dial-tone.

“Your advertisement!” Changbin whisper-shouted into the receiver. He kind of wanted to yell it out, unable to contain his excitement, but he had already gained enough unwanted attention from the other passengers from his previous outburst.

“Hyung… it’s like, stupid early. You’re gonna have to help me out a little, here.” The grogginess in his voice was thick with a slight annoyed undertone.

“The uniform advertisement you told me about a while ago! I’m looking at it right now on the train!”

“Hyung.” The sleepy voice deadpanned.

“Hyunjin-ah.” Changbin answered it back, dumbly.

“I am going back to bed for an hour. Call me later.”

Three beeps signaled the end of their call, Hyunjin preferring sleep over listening to this hyung’s over-excitement.

Changbin wasn’t bothered by his dongsaeng hanging up on him. He knew he would have done the same had the roles been reversed.

He glanced back at Hyunjin’s half of the poster; a full body shot that labeled each of the uniform’s pieces and priced them. Changbin’s wallet ached just looking at the number of zeros.

He sighed when he remembered the mysterious freckle boy just a little too late. He would have to ask Hyunjin about him another time, and preferably when the younger was his happier peppy self!

**LATE AUGUST: FELIX**

Felix groaned at the muffled banging noises coming from outside his room.

“ _Mm, whaaat the fuuuuck?”_ He mumbled, natural English slipping into his sleepy vocabulary.

Bright light shone through the closed blinds that covered his windows letting him know that it was already well into the morning and that any normal person probably would have already been awake by now. But today was his day off! He was free from all schedules due to it being “move-in day” on campus and Felix never bothered to remind his agency that he had been living in his dormitory alone since the beginning of summer.

“OH SHIT, IT’S MOVE IN DAY!” Felix scrambled to sit up in his bed and removed the three layers of blankets he had used to shield himself from the frozen tundra that was his bedroom inside the dormitory. He had messed with the thermostat in his room only once when he first arrived at the university and somehow managed to break it in the process. He would have switched to the second bedroom when it happened over two months ago, but the RA only gave him a key for bedroom A, the other one saved away for his roommate, who still beat - _kicked?-_ urgently at the door.

“Hold on, I’m coming!”

Felix made it out of his bedroom without much trouble, as he’d pretty much memorized where each of his stuffed animals were positioned across the floor. The plush dolls left hardly any space to walk around in his bedroom, but at least if he was ever to fall, Felix knew he would be in for a soft landing.

The incessant banging grew louder once he made it to the common room that held a couch and chair that Felix deemed comfortable enough to sleep in every once in a while when he’d come back from a particularly tiring day full of schedules, a mini fridge with some counter space, cabinets, and a microwave were also furnished to them with a cheap coffee table in the middle of it all which Felix had minimally decorated with a small bamboo plant when he first arrived. It didn’t look so pristine now as it had when he moved in; there were multiple pairs of shoes next to the door and a pile of dirty socks next to them where Felix would remove both after coming in after a long day of shooting. Empty bags of veggie chips and protein bar wrappers littered the counter tops and there was still a half-full bowl of cup ramen sitting out on the coffee table next too the graveyard of empty water bottles lined up to look like a formation of bowling pins before they’re knocked down, for Felix’s own amusement.

The angry sound of sneaker meeting the door made Felix almost wary of opening it. What if this person really _was_ angry with him? Who knows how long Felix had slept through the banging? It could have been going on for half an hour, Lord knows he’s a heavy sleeper!

He stopped himself short in front of the door, delicate fingers held on to the metal lock, others placed over his heart that beat frantically in his chest.

_Deep breaths, Felix._

He switched the lock over slowly and swung the door wide open, revealing a disheveled boy who looked equally as tired as Felix felt.

The boy barely so much as opened his mouth and the apologies began falling out of Felix’s own without any intentions of stopping.

“I am _so_ sorry _, I slept so late_! I totally forgot what day today was _and I was so exhausted_ I forgot to clean up the common area last night- _God, can you even bring your suitcases through here,_ what a _mess!”_ Felix took a second to breathe in and didn’t miss the bewildered look on the stranger’s face. “Wait, you are moving in, right? Please don’t hate me, I- _mph!!”_

The stranger had removed a hand from the handle of his luggage and placed it over Felix’s mouth, “It’s okay.” He spoke softly and slowly, watching Felix’s face with careful eyes as if he was making sure the younger understood his words.

Felix bit at his bottom lip once the hand was removed. How much of his spiel did the boy even understand? He probably started spouting off in English for all he knew. _Good job, Felix. Great first impression._

“You must be Felix.” He continued, still slowly with the same careful expression on his face. “Rad hair, dude.” He said, glancing up at Felix’s hair before moving past him into the common area with half of his bags, the other ones still sat on the ground in the hallway outside the door.

“Uh, y-yeah,” Felix stuttered as he stopped the door from closing and moved to help grab the remaining bags. “My name is Felix, but how do you kn-“  
  
“The name plates on the door.” He pointed to the door as it fell shut behind Felix.

_Oh._

“My name is Minho, don’t worry about checking the door since I’ve told you my name, now.” Minho smirked, setting down his luggage in front of the closed bedroom door and holding out a hand to Felix. He set down the bags he’d brought in for Minho and returned the handshake with a slight hesitation.

“And to answer your question from earlier, as if it isn’t obvious at this point, yes, I am moving in. ‘Sup, roomie?”

 

**FIRST DAY OF CLASSES:**

Felix observed the circular auditorium before choosing a seat in the second row of the first section of folding theater-style seats. There weren’t many other students in the auditorium, yet, but he imagined it would fill up quickly as 8AM approached.

The faint sound of trap beats through headphones and the eraser-end of a pencil tapping on the wooden fold out desk-top brought Felix’s attention to the rear view of the boy who sat directly in front of him in the first row. The boy had his hood drawn up and the ankle of his right leg balanced on his left knee under the folding desk top of which laid an open composition notebook. Felix observed the pencil he held and noticed it was half the size of any normal #2, probably the result of being sharpened and re-sharpened dozens of times, but it still served its purpose all the same.

Felix started when said boy suddenly straightened in his seat for a moment – pencil tapping ceased – and leaned forward to jot something down in the notebook. His curiosity got the better of him as he leaned forward, just slightly, to glance at the spot on the paper that was momentarily revealed to him while the boy was writing.

He gasped hard enough to choke on air at the single word, or rather, _name,_ that he was able to catch a glimpse of.

Felix hid his face in the sleeve of his burnt orange hoodie while he rode out the short coughing fit until he could breathe normally again.

The boy sat back so that the paper was once again out of Felix’s view, but Felix swore he saw _the_ name. There was no mistaking that he had seen “SpearB” scribbled along the header of the paper.

Felix fidgeted with the sleeve of his hoodie. He wanted to get the boy’s attention, but he wasn’t sure how to go about it.

After a moment he decided to take Hyunjin’s motto that had been engraved into his entire being over the summer and _yolo_ ’d it.

“Uh, excuse me?” Felix was bent forward over his own desk top. He was already close to the boy before since there was very little walking space between the rows of seats, but he had leaned in until his face was right behind the boy’s head.

Still, there was no answer from him and Felix felt far too embarrassed to try to gain his attention anymore. He needed to plan out exactly what he was going to say in advance. He was too afraid that his lacking Korean could form a misunderstanding to someone else and he wasn’t willing to risk it with the first person he meets in an 8AM biology lecture course. Yolo-ing it would not be his first option ever again.

He made a mental note to talk with Chan or Minho about it, whichever one of the older boys he saw first later in the day. He would have one of them help him map out how he wanted the conversation to go and try again with the boy during their next class on Wednesday.

**CHANGBIN**

Changbin pulled off his earphones when the lecturer had situated himself behind the podium that stood at the front of the science auditorium. He was thankful to his roommate for (accidentally) waking him up early when he was on his way out for a morning run. It motivated him to get ready and arrive to class nearly forty-five minutes early, which was how he was able to get a good bit of lyrics down up until class began.

“I’ll pass the roll sheet around, now. Please initial next to your names on the sheet and jot down your student ID numbers in the space next to your initials, as well. That is how I will display your class averages on the monitor after midterms.”

Changbin thought it sounded fair enough and did as they were instructed when the sheet was handed to him from the only other student who had sat in the front row with him. He skimmed through the names, stopping with a start at the “Lee” section on the list.

_Lee Felix?_ Changbin squinted at the name as if it would jog his memory. Why was the name familiar to him when he’d never even met someone by the name of Felix in his entire life?!

He bent forward over the list to cover the ‘Fe’ in ‘Felix’ with the eraser end of his pencil and had to stop himself from gasping, instead his eyebrows furrowed deeply in place of it.

“No way,” he mumbled under his breath.

Changbin straightened up from his bent position and looked around the room, completely oblivious to whatever his professor was droning on about up until now. He scanned the auditorium seats slowly. Of course, it could be a coincidence that the names were just similar, which is what Changbin ended up telling himself when he didn’t recognize a single face in the room.

He signed his initials and number as instructed and passed the list directly behind him, not bothering to look at whoever grabbed the papers away from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it was a long wait, right? i'll try to finish up the updates quicker, now. what do you guys think of the story so far? ^^


	3. Torrential Coincidences

**MONDAY: END OF FIRST CLASS (FELIX)**

Felix nearly coughed through the yawn he let out once the lecture was ending. The boy that sat in front of him didn’t bother waiting for their professor to finishing speaking before he was up from his seat and out the door, startling Felix.

He supposed the boy might have a class that was ridiculously far from the science auditorium or a schedule to keep to, but didn’t dwell on it for long.

He began packing up his own books and the various colored pens he used to take meticulous notes with, fishing his phone out from a side pocket on his backpack in the process. He kept it put away during the lecture because he knew if he had it out he would never hear a single word the professor said.

Felix unlocked his phone while he maneuvered his backpack into a semi-comfortable position over his shoulders. The thing was heavy as fuck with all the text books his classes required of him, plus his notebooks and a laptop. He would have to figure out a better system so that he wasn’t carrying everything all at once after today, lest he wanted to have bad back problems by the time he turned nineteen. And with his major, he really couldn’t afford that.

He had three unread messages, all from Minho. Felix smiled as he read them.

 **FROM: Minnie-hyung  
8:34AM  
** ○ hey do you like coffee? **  
8:45AM  
** ○ i just got you a frappe ****  
8:48AM  
○ i’m waiting outside the left exit.  
○ let’s walk to the music building together.

The two of them clicked really well once they got over the awkward first meeting. Felix learned that they shared the same major and Minho offered to help show him around when he could. They weren’t able to hang out much before classes began due to Felix’s work and Minho would often be visiting with other friends on campus when Felix was free. But they had gone to dinner together a couple of times, once at the Subway on campus and another time at the dining hall, both times ending with promises from Minho to introduce Felix to his friends as soon as possible.

“’Sure took your sweet time packing up!” Minho snapped playfully the moment Felix stepped outside the left exit of the science auditorium.

“Dude, do you want to feel how heavy my backpack is?! I have too much shit.” Felix pouted at his hyung, the other smiled back him adoringly and handed him a pretty drink topped with whipped cream and white chocolate shavings.

“For you.” He said cutely.

Felix pocketed his phone and took the drink. “What is it?”

“Well, since you didn’t answer my text, I asked the barista for a sweet drink, because you leave your candy wrappers all over the common area. But I thought since you have long-ass Mondays I asked for something with coffee in it but didn’t taste too strongly of coffee because I didn’t know if you liked it.” Minho paused to breathe, and Felix took the opportunity to take a sip of the frozen drink.

“And so _that,_ ” Minho pointed at Felix’s drink, “is called a white mocha frappuccino with extra whipped cream because I was feeling generous.”

Felix’s eyes widened at the taste, the drink was _perfect._

“ _Oh my god!”_ He exclaimed in English.

Minho smiled brightly at the reaction and pulled Felix by the sleeve of his hoodie with him toward the direction of the music building, “We should get going if you don’t want to be late.”

Felix hummed around his straw and followed the older. He wanted to make the joke that every route he took on campus seemed to be a ‘scenic route’ with all the beautiful landscaping and perfectly structured buildings and walkways. The sitting area outside the science auditorium was paved with a mixture of brick on the inside with a cobblestone path surrounding it, the benches were cement extensions from the elevated flower beds where a mix of wild flowers and small trees grew together in harmony. The open pathways that cut across the quad were lined with seasonal flowers whereas the covered walkways had blooming shrubs of all sorts changing from building to building. Felix decided that the scenery was his favorite part of being on campus.

They walked in silence for most of the way, it surprised Felix how close the music building was to the science auditorium, but Minho told him it would probably be the only convenient commute of his entire week.

The pair paused outside the door of the classroom number that was written on Felix’s schedule (he made sure to print out a couple of copies in case he was to lose one, not wanting to risk going into the wrong classrooms on the first day of class).

Minho ran a hand through his hair; his nose was scrunched, and eyebrows furrowed as he looked around the busy hallway.

“What? Is something the matter?” Felix asked around his straw. They had reached the door to his classroom with a few minutes left to spare before the next class was to start.

Minho shook his head dismissively and bit at his lip, “No, it’s nothing. Just… Binnie mentioned having a bio lecture on Monday mornings, but I didn’t see him.” He looked everywhere but at Felix, searching the faces of other students passing by in hopes of finding his best friend.

Felix sipped on his drink with an unknowingly cute and thoughtful expression.

 _Binnie?_ Felix thought to himself while looking around the hallway, too, eyes searching for a face to put the name to. _Ah! He must mean Changbin!_

Felix recalled the couple of times he’d come back from work over the week to find Minho sprawled out on their couch with his phone laying on his stomach. The boy only used speaker phone if he was in their shared dorm room, and he was _always_ on the phone with his best friend. Felix only knew the name due to an instance when Minho was in the shower when Changbin called him.

And what an experience that had been.

_“Minho-hyung’s phone, his roommate s-speaking… he said to take a message because he’s in the shower.” Felix already hated answering the phone enough as is, so it almost terrified him to answer the phone for someone else._

_“Ahh, just tell him Changbin called to ask a question about his schedule this weekend!”_

_Felix pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at the name on the screen, ‘Binnie Binnie’ with an assortment of cute emojis following the nickname. He was momentarily stunned by the voice on the other end of the line_. _There was a familiarity to it that he couldn’t quite pinpoint, but he knew one thing was for sure: he absolutely loved the voice._

“ _Hello?”_

_“Oh yeah, sorry. I’ll make sure to let him know you called about that!”_

_“Thank you~!” Changbin had answered so adorably it had thrown Felix for an entirely new loop._

_“Y-yeah, no problem.” Felix answered and ended the call in a rush before he tossed the phone back on the couch as if it was going to burn him if he held it any longer._

Minho hummed to himself and faced Felix with one of his adorable smiles, “I guess he’s running late… Which is strange since he’s kind of a perfectionist when it comes to being places on time.”

Felix nodded, understanding. “Well, it’s his first day here, too, right? We’re all a little… _frantic_ on the first day of school.”

“ _Frantic?”_ Felix watched, amused as Minho’s brain worked to translate the word and ultimately fail at it in the end.

“Uh… crazy or lost. Crazy and lost?”

Minho smirked, shaking his head at the younger, “Crazy and lost sounds about right. _Frantic_ is me all the time, honestly.”

They laughed together, both in full agreeance that Minho, despite how put together the elder might appear, was the very definition of ‘frantic’ a lot of the time.

The older looked past Felix for a moment before straightening up from his relaxed position against the wall. “Your professor is coming. Get to class.” He smiled at the younger warmly. “I’ll come back after practice and we can go get some real food. Sound good?”

Felix bobbed his head enthusiastically. Getting Minho as a roommate had been a huge blessing, Felix decided as the two of them said goodbye and parted ways.

Felix found himself regretting not walking into the classroom earlier, as there were only a couple of seats left vacant: one in the far back left or one at the very front right end of the room. He opted for the seat in the back and made a bee-line for the desk as his teacher walked into the room behind him, the heels of her shoes clacking loudly against the tiled floor.

 _Pretty._ That was the word that came to mind when Felix looked at the professor’s face. His biology lecture was some older man that liked to make puns that Felix couldn’t yet understand, so he had tried to keep his focus on the PowerPoint slides throughout the lecture. But this professor was stylish; her coppery-red hair was kept in a neat bob, a bright turquoise blazer almost clashed with her chunky yellow jewelry, but she made it work. But of course, the main thing that stuck out to Felix, and probably the rest of the students in the room, was that she was definitely _not_ Korean. Not directly, anyway. She wasn’t as tall as some of the girls Felix had known in Australia, but not as short as most of the women Felix had seen in Korea, and the freckles that adorned her cheeks were spread out, and not as clustered as Felix’s own.

“Ah, wonderful!” The professor exclaimed as she made eye contact with the students around the classroom. “Welcome to Music 1301, or Elements of Music! You may have also heard the name _Baby Theory_ passed around a couple of times.” The woman smiled brightly, and Felix found it contagious, smiling back himself when the professor finally made eye contact with him.

“We’ll begin with introductions first, and then I will talk a little bit about myself and what you can all expect with this course.” She looked around the room with a challenging expression and smiled once more when her eyes landed on Felix. His stomach dropped, he knew what would come next. “How about we start in the back corner of the room then?”

Felix’s eyes widened, and mouth went dry, a nervous panic setting in. He didn’t want to be called upon first.

“Stand as well, so that the rest of the class can get to know your face.” She added, blinking expectantly at Felix.

He slowly rose up from the comfort zone that his desk had provided for him and took two calming breaths in attempt to will himself _not_ to stutter.

“Hello,” he began with a haste bow toward the front of the classroom. All heads were turned to look back at him and he swore there weren’t this many students when he walked in.

“Uhm, my name is Lee Felix. I moved here from Australia over the summer with a modeling contract.” He paused with a shy smile when the other students _ooh’d and ahh’d_ at the news. “My major is dance, but I’m minoring in music.”

“All the way from Australia? That’s wonderful! And you speak Korean so well already! I was going to tell you all in my own introduction, but I’m from Germany, so it’s nice to meet someone else from abroad. Thank you, Felix, you may be seat- “

She was interrupted when the door slammed open, and the occupant for the last remaining desk frantically stormed into the classroom. He bowed toward the classroom and then once more at the professor all the while letting out a string of apologies.

“It’s quite okay, dear. We were just starting introductions.” She assured him with a wide smile.

Felix slowly sank down into his seat, grateful to have the attention off of himself.

**CHANGBIN (10 MIN. AGO)**

“God damn it all to hell.” Changbin cursed as he tossed around the clothes that were previously folded in a neat pile at the foot of his bed.

“Damn, dude, tell the clothes how you really feel.” Changbin’s roommate, Mark, remarked from the living room area.

Changbin hadn’t expected to get along with Mark from the first time they met on move-in day, but he quickly learned that they had a lot in common. Mark was a really chill dude and Changbin was pleasantly surprised to find out that the other boy was just as OCD as he was when it came to things being neat and tidy.

Changbin tossed a couple of shirts around his dresser drawer before slamming it shut. He could feel sweat beginning to pool around the small of his back and yanked his hoodie off to help cool himself down. He knew he was getting worked up, Changbin _hated_ being late to things, but he would have to risk being late for class this once rather than being late for work which followed directly after the class.

“ _Dude.”_ Changbin paused in his doorframe to address his roommate _, “_ Have you seen my apron for work? I’m already late enough for class as is and-“

Mark pointed at the garment folded neatly over the countertop with a tired smile. “Is that what you’re looking for, Princess?”

His roommate twirled a plastic fork between his fingers while he watched his cup ramen finish cooking in the microwave- a weird choice for a mid-morning snack, Changbin thought to himself before remembering that normal eating habits were pretty much nonexistent in college. He supposed there were worse things Mark could have chosen to eat.

“Oh my God, how am I SO blind?!” Changbin scolded himself while stuffing the apron into his backpack. He grabbed his keys off the coffee table and made his way out of the dorm room while trying to shuffle the backpack onto his shoulders.

“ _Oh, thank you Mark. You’re welcome, sunshine!”_ The remark came dripping with sarcasm from where Mark still stood by the microwave, the fork hanging cutely from his mouth slurring his speech a little.

Changbin paused halfway out the door and rolled his eyes at Mark, “If you’re free around 2:30-ish, come to the café and I’ll buy you something as thanks.”

“SWEET!” Mark exclaimed with a bright smile. “Later, man!”

Changbin gave a small wave and rushed out the door without pausing to lock it. He knew Mark wouldn’t mind locking it behind him.

Once outside the dormitory building Changbin broke out into a near sprint, cursing all the college gods in the entire universe for putting the music department on the complete opposite side of campus from the dorms. He knew he was sweating and probably looked like death at this point, but ‘twas the life of a college student. Changbin found himself almost laughing at the memory of Minho explaining the concept of ‘College Couture’ and how well he fit such a concept at that moment. So much for good first impressions to the professors and classmates he’d be working with for the next four to six years.

Changbin pulled up the bottom of his t-shirt by the hem to wipe the sweat off his face as the music department came into view. He thanked himself for applying a generous amount of deodorant and cologne this morning and prayed that the products would do their jobs for the rest of his classmate’s sakes.

He remembered just why Minho had advised him to bring his hoodie or a sweater with him wherever he went on campus as he pushed the entrance door open, the freezing air conditioning hitting him like a wave!

“Jesus fucking Christ,” he muttered under his breath. He could already feel his sweat down his arms turning an unpleasant icy cold. He slowed his jog into a brisk walk down the hallway and did his best to control his breathing; the rush to get to class had had him nearly panting.

Changbin did not bother to pause outside the classroom, not wanting to make himself any later than he already was! Instead he burst through the door, not bothering to think about the possibility of disrupting the classroom. Too late.

The professor stopped amid her sentence and looked to him with surprised eyes. The look changed into that of an understanding one as Changbin slowly inched his way toward the only remaining seat at the very front of the left-most row. He was thankful that the seat was at least one of the closest ones to the door.

“It’s quite alright, dear.” The professor began, perfectly reading the apology in Changbin’s eyes. “We were just starting introductions,” she said with a wide smile

Changbin saw movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced briefly at the boy who he assumed had just given his own introduction as he sank back into his desk chair. Ashy-blonde hair fell in a fit of messy, but stylish, waves that obscured his face, but Changbin figured the boy was happy to have the attention off him. He envied him in the moment. “But since you are already standing, you may go ahead and take your turn!”

Changbin could feel his cheeks burning, more so than light flush he’d gotten from his run to the building. Still, he complied and slid his backpack from his shoulders until it rested on the seat of his desk before clearing his throat.

“My name is Seo Changbin,” he began to address the professor but turned to address the rest of the class. “I’m not usually late like this… like _ever._ So, I apologize for this instance.” Changbin paused for a brief bow. “I’m a music major with a focus on vocal training and composition.”

“We’re glad to have you, Changbin-ssi! I’m sure we can all overlook your tardiness this time. You may have a seat, now.”

Changbin nodded and pulled his backpack from the seat so that he could sink himself down to it instead.

“Wonderful! Now, who would like to go next?”

**FELIX**

Felix’s head snapped up at the name.

 _Changbin? As in Minho’s Changbin???_ He wondered to himself as the boy continued to introduce himself. Felix’s eyes widened as the other talked and the tips of his ears turned red as he recalled the brief phone conversation he’d had with the other last week. There was no mistaking the voices were the same, and with his realization came the same strange sense of familiarity he’d felt over the phone. It was a feeling he couldn’t quite pinpoint but had bothered him endlessly from the moment he’d ended the call with the other.

He stared ahead without really seeing anything, wondering over and over again and wracking his brain to try and figure _it_ out. Whatever _it_ was.

Felix zoned out for the remainder of the class introductions and only paid attention when his professor, Dr. Yonkres, introduced herself and went over the syllabus that Felix had already printed out in the library the week before. He didn’t realize that he zoned out once more until the rest of his classmates are packing their things and making their way out of the classroom together.

Felix slowly packed his belongings away and let his eyes spy the first seat in the left-most row, sighing to himself upon finding it empty. Changbin must have a busy schedule to have packed up and left before Felix could even get a full look around the room.

**CHANGBIN: FIRST DAY, LATER HALF**

“Water for Felix!”

Changbin turned back to begin on the next drink only to stop short because _wait,_ Felix?! The barista whirled around to see a flash of retreating ashy-blonde waves before other customers stepped up anticipating their orders.

His shift, despite how busy the café remained for the entirety of the afternoon, dragged on at a snail’s pace. It didn’t help that the weather had turned from hot and humid to dark and dreary within the first few hours he was inside the café. Gradually, students began to arrive with rainboots on and their umbrellas in tow, making Changbin wish he would have remembered to pack an umbrella in his backpack. Despite the impending rainstorm, Changbin envied those who weren’t confined to the cramped space behind the counter of the café and able to roam around campus in the dark weather. Overcast days have always been a favorite of Changbin’s, and he was excited to encounter one for the first time in his college career, he just had not expected it to be on the first official class day. He hoped it would last until he had his own time to walk around outside and enjoy it for a few minutes, but the downpour began only fifteen minutes before his shift was scheduled to end.

Poor thing didn’t even get a moment to look out the window until just as his shift ended, Mark’s smug grin meeting him from the other side of the counter as he placed his order, 2:30PM on the dot. Changbin, remembering his promise, pulled his Gold Membership card from the pocket of his apron and slid it through the card-reader over his co-worker’s shoulder.

“On me,” he explained after receiving a confused glance from the cashier. One of the benefits of working at the café was getting free drinks, and usually Changbin would just make a drink, claiming it as his own, before handing it over to one of his friends, but that was only when he didn’t want a drink for himself. Today, he figured that since he was going to make two drinks that he should at least pay for one of them, this time. He wouldn’t have bothered with a drink, but it was only mid-afternoon, and he still had the dreaded three-hour bio lab coming up and his battery had long since started running low as he worked through his shift.

Changbin squinted judgingly at the ticket printed onto Mark’s cup, glancing back and forth from it to his roommate. “You want banana… what, now?” He asked over the counter.

“I’m… lactose-intolerant.” Mark admitted after Changbin gave him the most judgmental look he’d ever received. The barista’s lips formed an ‘o’ as he began to understand the situation better.

“Ah, okay. Noted. Are you allergic to anything?” Changbin asked, as he marked out the order on the ticket and began rewriting his own.

“No.” Mark answered him with a curious look to which the other responded with a brilliant smile.

“Perfect! This will just take a minute to make, you can go find us a table while you wait.”

Mark did a two-finger salute and Changbin watched on as he sauntered over to a two-seater table by the windows. Changbin made quick work and followed the original recipe of the drink he _assumed_ Mark had asked for, adding his own twist on a couple of the steps and hoped for the best, but he was at least seventy-five percent sure that Mark would absolutely love the concoction.

He was met with a skeptical glare as he approached their table, “What is that…?” Mark asked slowly but took the warm cup from Changbin’s hand without hesitation. Changbin took a large swig of his Passion Tea Lemonade before leveling his gaze to meet his roommate’s.

“Just drink it. You will like it.” Changbin paused his finger from where it was tracing patterns in the condensation on his plastic cup. “And the chance you don’t like it I will go remake it as a cold drink. But I’m pretty certain you will like it, so- “

Changbin shut up when Mark put the lid of his cup to his lips. He tested it with just a single small sip at first, and then a bigger sip before scowling at Changbin.

“I hate you. This is so damn good. What the ever-living heck is this?”

The barista smiled around his straw and pulled away to lick his lips before answering, “It’s what you ordered, but I substituted the disgusting skim milk for almond milk and steamed it instead of leaving it cold, so that’s why it’s kind of foamy instead of creamy and icy. I also used half the sugar it usually calls for because the banana syrup is already pretty sweet.”

“How the fuck do I order this next time? That’s such a mouthful oh my- “

“As long as I’m here just order a banana milk steamer and I’ll know what to do from there. If I’m not here… I dunno fam, that’s on you.”

Marks lips bent into a perfect frown, but with his bottom lip slightly jutted out to make it look just _that_ much more pitiful, causing Changbin to roll his eyes.

“I guess I can write it down in your phone’s notes or text it to you, so you’ll know what to say when I’m not here.”

The other’s frown flipped into a bright grin, eyes brighter than Changbin was used to seeing, too. “Have I ever told you that you’re the best?”

Changbin hummed, “In the week and half that we’ve known each other? No, not really, but I will certainly take it, now.”

“Okay, well, you _are_ the best, but I think I’m even _better_.” Mark took another sip from his cup, ignored Changbin’s questioning look and pulled his backpack up from the ground so that it sat in his lap.

“You have another class soon, right? I brought this for you!”

Changbin had seen the one umbrella sitting in the side pocket of the backpack, dotted with drops of water that Mark had failed to shake off when he entered the café, but he hadn’t even thought about the possibility of the other thinking to bring an extra one just for him.

“Oh my GOD! You are heaven-sent, you know that?!”

Mark grinned and proceeded to “flip” his hair over his shoulder, “I mean, I don’t want to sound conceited, but…”

“No, seriously, thank you! I was so bummed thinking about having to make a run for it from here to the Biology building.” Changbin glanced at the time on his phone. “Speaking of which, I should get going. My next class starts in fifteen minutes and I still have to figure out my way through this… downpour. God dammit.”

Both boys glanced out the window next to them, though neither of them could clearly see anything on the other side of it. The wind was blowing the rain toward the building they were in hard enough to the point that the droplets were audible against the glass of the window. Changbin thought it was almost as loud as hail hitting the rooftop.

“Okay, well, get there safely. Don’t run on the walkways, you could slip. Especially take your time on the cobblestone paths, those are deathtraps when it rains!”

“Got it, yeesh! You sound like one of my hyungs that goes here!” Changbin complained and made the mental note to text Chan about hanging out with him after his biology lab. He needed a second opinion on the lyrics he wrote before the lecture earlier that morning and since Jisung wasn’t an option at the time, Chan would have to suffice.

“I’m going to head out, now.” Changbin stood, collecting his umbrella and empty cup that he would dispose of on his way out. “Thanks again, Mark. Today has been so wild, it honestly feels like I’m cheating the system by not having to walk through this storm without an umbrella.”

Mark chuckled, understanding. “Nah, man, thank _you_ for the new drink! My body thanks you, too. Lord knows what it would have gone through had I accidentally gotten real milk again.”

-

Changbin made careful, measured steps along the cobblestone paths he came across on his way to the biology building, Mark’s warning replaying over in his head like a broken record. He was extremely grateful for Mark having brought the umbrella to him, but he wished he had thought to wear a different pair of shoes as he felt the water begin to soak through to his socks. To say it was a miserable feeling would be an understatement, he would have to sit through a three-hour class with cold and wet socks the thought alone was enough to make Changbin consider skipping out on the first day.

His body tensed in preparation for the next cobblestone path, fuck knows why the campus was littered with them randomly through the main paths, and managed to remain balanced across it with a few minor slips here and there. His heart jumped for joy when the music building came into view, and eventually the science auditorium, which meant only a little more ways to go until the bio—.

“Oof!” Changbin struggled to keep his grip on the umbrella that had fought the wind in a nonstop battle his entire trek when a figure in a burnt orange, or deep red orange, thanks to the rain, hoodie collided none-to-gently with Changbin.

Spews of apologies in both Korean and English fell a mile a minute from the stranger’s mouth as he struggled against the unforgiving rain to gather all of his belongings that he’d lost hold of when he had barreled face first into Changbin’s chest.

The older quickly held the umbrella over the hunched stranger even though it didn’t look like it really made any sort of difference at that point. The poor thing was already drenched to the bone and Changbin thought he _had_ to be freezing!

“Yah, it’s okay, stop apologizing! And slow down, here just stay for a second and calm down.” Changbin yanked the other into his personal space so that they both fit under the umbrella, save for their backpacks; a minor sacrifice Changbin felt highly necessary in the moment, even if he might come to regret it later on. The force of the pull had the stranger’s hoodie falling off his head and Changbin had to glance up to see the messy half-ponytail the other was sporting and then back down to the prettiest pair of lips he’d ever seen in his life.

“Uh, thank you. I’ll just take a second, I’m looking for a certain building…” The boy murmured distractedly as he looked down to his soaking phone screen. The light that was emitted from the device had cast an ethereal glow against his face and Changbin -though he would swear otherwise if anyone ever asked him- swooned on the spot.

“ _Are you okay, dude?”_ A familiar voice came from the stranger’s phone, bringing Changbin out of his trance while simultaneously throwing him into confusion. His eyes widened when he noticed the green bar across the top of the bright phone screen, right above what the older could immediately tell was a map of the campus. Had the stranger been on the phone this entire time? He could be mistaken, but Changbin could swear that it was Minho’s voice he’d heard… just, a slower version of it.

“Yes, I found it, I’m going now!” The blond-haired stranger responded eagerly before nodding a quick thank you to Changbin and turning on his heel to take off toward whatever his destination was.

“W- wait…!” Changbin’s call was drowned out by the storm. He stood with his umbrella still only half covering him, the other half getting considerably soaked to the point that he questioned if it was even worth using the damned thing anymore.

**FELIX**

Felix’s shoulders slumped as he slowly read the class cancelation notice on the door. He read it once, twice, three times over to make sure he wasn’t seeing wrong. His breathing was unstable due to the running he’d done before, but Felix could feel it spiraling even further out of his control the longer he stared at the notice. The rush of having to find the building in the pouring rain alone with almost no help from Minho had sent Felix into a small panic that was hitting him like a brick wall. Everything had collectively overwhelmed him and now he was at his tipping point because it was all for nothing.

Felix’s breath caught in his throat as he typed out hurried texts to Hyunjin.

 **TO: Hyunjinnie**  
3:19PM  
○ hyunjiin  
○ I think  
○ I’m having a panic attack  
○ I got caughht in teh rain adn  
○ its fucking cold  
○ ijust want to go home

He wanted to call Hyunjin, but he knew the other was still in class. Minho wasn’t an option, either. The older had helped guide him over the phone as best as he could from his own class, too.

Felix slid his back down the length of the wall until his bottom made contact with the cold tiled floor. The shock of feeling the cold floor through the legs and bottom of his pants pulled his focus away from his breathing until it slowed some and started coming naturally once more.

Tears fell, unnoticed to Felix, silently down his cheeks at first. Later, he would describe it as the calm before the storm as he analyzed everything that had happened in the short period of time between his last class and now. He stared at shaking hands that wouldn’t keep still no matter how hard he wished and willed them to. He cursed inwardly at the noise of his teeth chattering, the frigid air conditioning in the building was doing its job a little _too_ well. Felix thought he might freeze to death on his spot by the wall, an appealing alternative to having walking back to his arctic dormitory room.

A sob finally wracked through his frame at the thought of having to make the trek back through the hell storm outside. Felix pulled his knees to his chest and hid his face in the sleeves of his freezing hoodie on top of his knees. Today had just been too much for him to handle.

 Felix vaguely registered the sound of the door to the building opening followed by a pair of footsteps echoing down the hallway. The steps got louder and began to echo less until they came to a complete stop at what Felix thought was right in front of him. He didn’t dare look up, he was far too embarrassed to face anyone in that moment. The stranger was silent for a few moments. Felix began to think the other might be mute until he  _did_ speak up, startling Felix enough to make him slightly jump in place.

“Ah, your lab is canceled? I’m envious. But that sucks you came all the way here… in the rain and everything.” Felix’s hiccups and sniffles calmed as he focused on the voice speaking to him. “Here,” there was some shuffling before Felix felt and object being sat next to his feet, but he still refused to look up.

“Just return it next lab, okay?” The stranger paused, probably hoping to receive an answer from Felix that wouldn’t come. “Or don’t, I can just buy a new one. Sorry I couldn’t help more than this.”

He didn’t look up until the stranger’s footsteps were farther away and the door to a laboratory down the hall clicked shut. Felix felt tears welling up in his eyes once more when he saw what the person had sat beside his feet. An umbrella, black with yellow smiley faces dotting the surface, lay neatly closed and secured with a Velcro strap. Felix couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed once more, but this time with gratitude for the simple act of random kindness from a complete stranger.

He wiped a soaked sleeve across his runny red nose before gingerly picking up the object and cradled it between his knees and chest. Felix remembered his phone that he had haphazardly dropped on the floor when he sat down and blindly fished around himself for it with his free hand.

 **TO: Chris  
3:22PM  
** ○ hyung. ****  
○ are you free right now.  
3:24PM  
○ [IMAGE ATTACHED]

Felix sent what was probably the most pitiful looking selfie of himself he had ever taken and thanked the college gods above for free wi-fi so that the message sent almost instantaneously. Chan’s reply came quickly:

 **FROM: Chris  
3:25PM  
** ○ OH MY GOD YOU POOR THING  
○ COME TO MY ROOM I’M  
**3:26PM**  
○ I HAVE TOWELS READY  
○ WAIT DO I NEED TO COME GET YOU  
○ SHIT IT’S FUCKING POURING

Felix stared at the messages with a dumb smile on his face, the worst of his hiccups and sniffles having gone down to some shaky breaths. He could feel dried tear streaks on his face as he smiled and dragged a soaking wet sleeve across his nose to keep it from dripping, once more.  
  
**FROM: Chris**  
3:30PM  
○ STAY THERE I’M ON MY WAY NOW IN MY CAR.

Felix had been too focused on Chan’s texts to realize his growing inbox of messages from the one other person he’d caused to worry in the last twenty minutes. He was typing out a reply to Hyunjin’s worried texts when the other’s face appeared on his phone screen for an incoming call.

“Hello?”

“Shit, Felix! Are you okay?” Hyunjin’s worried voice filled the speaker along with some other voices and noises of movement in the background. Felix could just make out what sounded like a couple of different people saying their goodbyes to Hyunjin before there was a loud bang that cut out any other background noise.

“I’m okay now… or, I will be soon. One of my friends is driving over to where I am now to pick me up.” He took two calming breaths, cursing himself when they shook on the exhales.

“You don’t sound good at all. I’m so sorry, today has gone so shitty for you and we have the shoot tomorrow afternoon, we should just cancel it because you could get sick and—”

“Hyunjin…”

“Hmm?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be in class?”

“No, I’m headed to the company right now. School let out twenty minutes ago, ‘Lix.” Hyunjin’s voice was calmer, softer, and if Felix was hearing right, still full of overwhelming concern. “I can have manager-hyung come pick you up first if you want, though.”

Hyunjin’s voice became distant as if he’d pulled the receiver away from his face, “Hyung, which school is Felix at? Is it close? Can we go there first?”

“Hyunjin… It’s fine. I’ll be fine. I just had a bit of a freak out.

Felix jumped in his position on the floor when the doors at the entrance of the biology building burst open to reveal a disheveled looking Chan, face overcome with worry as his eyes frantically searched the lobby for any sign of Felix. He looked for just a moment until his eyes landed on Felix’s slumped form down the hallway and began making a bee-line for him.

“Thanks, Hyunjinnie, but my ride is here now.” Felix spoke quietly into the receiver as Chan approached, the elder making it to his side before his coworker could respond on the other end.

“I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon, okay? Dry off, warm up, drink some tea. Don’t let yourself get sick! And please rest now, you don’t have any more classes today, right?”

“No, I’m done with classes for the day,” Felix gave Chan an apologetic look and continued, “But I really ought to go now. I will see you tomorrow, Hyunjin. I promise I won’t be sick!”

Chan pulled a bewildered face at the mention of Hyunjin’s name and grabbed Felix’s phone without warning. He glanced at the screen for half a second before putting the phone to his ear. “Hwang Hyunjin.”

“Don’t ‘oh my god’ me!” Chan continued after a short pause. Felix could hear Hyunjin’s voice coming from the phone, but not clearly enough to make out any words or phrases the other was saying. “Yes, Felix is _that_ friend from Australia… No, I didn’t think to tell you. Maybe because I didn’t know he worked with you, either??? ‘ _Has he met Minho?_ ’ I mean… I would hope so, seeing as he _is_ Minho’s roommate.”

That time Felix could clearly hear the “ _OH MY GOD!”_ that came from his phone.

“I’m hanging up now, Jinnie. Don’t worry, Felix is in good hands. Yeah, good bye.”

-

“I didn’t realize how much you’d improved on your Korean. You sound fantastic, man.” Chan complimented the younger once they were in his car and on the way back to the dormitory buildings.

Felix smiled into the warm towel that was wrapped around his shoulders and covered half of his face. Chan had two large towels waiting for him, as promised, in the passenger seat of his car and the heater cranked up so that Felix wouldn’t freeze to death during the short drive to the dorms.

“Thank you.” He mumbled into the towel.

A comfortable silence settled between the two old friends; Chan focused on the traffic light, waiting for it to switch from red to green and Felix watched the raindrops that raced down the length of the window he had been leaning the top of his head against. The roaring water that had been the cause of his breakdown earlier had now become the source of the calming sound that was on the verge of lulling him to sleep.

“Hwang Hyunjin,” Chan’s voice startled Felix out of his almost-sleep. “How small must the world be that you signed with the same company as him?”

“I mean, is it a _bad_ thing that we work at the same place?” Felix questioned, hands absently playing at the wet strings of his hoodie from underneath the towel. Hyunjin was one of his only friends and the other had never done anything that would suggest him being a bad person.

“No, there’s nothing wrong with working with Hyunjin! He’s a great kid... It’s the company I don’t like so much. That boy never has any free time, kid’s going to run until they’ve exhausted him and--“

Felix furrowed his eyebrows and cut the older off when he took a breath.

“Hmm… I see where you’re coming from, hyung. But we have more free time than you think. We only work for a few hours at a time, tops. We get lots of breaks and we are fed well while on the job. We have set times of the week where we’re tutored and do our homework and other times set aside for resting and working out. It’s all planned out ahead of time and we’re made aware of the schedule a week in advance. Hell, our manager even texts us daily schedules just so that we are always in the know of what’s going on.” Felix breathed, and only then did he realize that they were parked in the dormitory parking lot. He didn’t know why he felt so obligated to defend his company, but he knew that Hyunjin would have done the same thing had it been him instead of Felix.

“Points taken.” The older admitted with a bewildered look. “Have I told you that you sound amazing? Because you really sounded natural just now, it was kind of badass.”

Felix rolled his eyes and fought the proud grin that threatened to spread, “Hyunjin helped me a lot over the summer and Minho has been really cool since I meet him, too.”

-

Chan brought Felix to the dorm room that he shared with Woojin and made quick work to find some clothes that would _kind of_ fit him. Felix stared back at his reflection in the mirror; his hair fell in waves around his face, a hoodie that was at least two sizes bigger than necessary swallowed his frame, and a pair of sweatpants pulled up almost to just under his chest were tied as tight as the drawstrings allowed. It wasn’t the prettiest, but it was warm and cozy and that’s all that mattered in that moment to Felix.

He found Chan working at his desk in the _A_ suite. Felix liked the chaotic order the room was in; it wasn’t messy, but it wasn’t as clean as Minho would have liked it to be, either. Endless amounts of sheet music covered just about every surface of the desk Chan worked at, save for the space made for his laptop, and even more of it was tacked on the walls. From unfinished compositions to various etudes Chan might have been practicing for a class, it was almost overwhelming, but Felix loved it.

Chan worked on in silence as Felix roamed around the room. The elder kept a bulletin board on the wall directly between his bed and desk that was covered in photos from over the years. “Oh,” he started when his eyes landed on a group photo. “Hyunjinnie.” He recognized the younger version of his friend with a fond smile.

Chan hummed, eyes still fixated on his laptop, “Keep looking, you might see someone else you recognize.”

Felix slowly scanned the faces in the photo, “Of course I recognize you… and oh, Changbin-ssi is there, too.”

“Anyone else?”

“OH Minho-hyung!!! He looks so much younger here, oh my god!!”

“I guess you haven’t met the others yet.” Chan’s voice came from directly beside Felix’s ear, startling the younger momentarily. Chan brought his hand up to point to a couple of faces in the photo that Felix hadn’t recognized.

“Woojin, he’s my roommate, we’re the same age.” Chan explained, finger hovering over a boy with strong distinguished facial features. Felix thought he looked handsome all those years ago and wondered how he looked these days.

“Next,” Chan moved his finger to a boy with chestnut hair, plump cheeks, and wide eyes that screamed natural curiosity. “That’s Jisung. He’s your age and he attends the same school as Hyunjin and,” Chan moved his finger again to the last person in the photo, “Seungmin, also your age. He’s super smart, wins a bunch of singing competitions, and is also the president of his class.”

“Hmm,” Felix hummed with a small smile playing at his lips. “That’s how Hyunjinnie described them, too. I was  _supposed_ to meet them on several occasions over the summer, but my schedules never ended up matching the dates everyone else was available for. They sound really cool.”

“The younger ones usually make the trip to watch our performances throughout the semester,” Chan smiled warmly at the photos across his bulletin board. “I’m sure there you will be able to meet with them at the shows.”

“Plus,” He added with his finger hovering over a perfectly square photo that captured three silhouettes sitting atop a stone wall. “Jisung randomly drops by here all the time to work on our compositions together with—”

“Wait, hold on!” Felix cut his hyung off with a sense of urgency in his voice. He moved Chan out of the way to get a closer look at the photo the other’s finger had just been on. “ _You_ know SpearB?!”

Chan’s mouth audibly snapped shut and remained closed for a moment while the older thought over his answer. He hadn’t thought about the possibility of Felix recognizing any of their stage names since the younger had never expressed interest in 3RACHA over the years. Still, he found it almost amusing that he knew who Changbin was, but not that he and SpearB were one in the same.

“I… uh… do _you_ know him, then?” He questioned Felix.

The younger’s eyes softened to the point that Chan thought he almost looked sad.

“No, not personally.”

Chan breathed out a sigh of relief.

“But I do like his music.” Chan watched as the light slowly returned in Felix’s eyes as the younger talked. “And it would be amazing to meet him and tell him that personally. His lyrics are so passionate and vulnerable it makes me want to hug him and tell him that everything is going to be okay!”

 _Changbin would fall in love with this boy,_ Chan thought to himself as the other continued his declaration of admiration toward the young rapper.

“—anyway, I would love to meet him, Hyung. If you could just do me this solid, I’ll be forever thank—”

“No.” The older snapped, a bit too harshly, at Felix.

Chan hated to be the reason behind the dying light in the younger’s eyes once again.

“Think about it, Felix… Have you ever seen his real name anywhere in his videos or on his channel?”

“No, but—”

Chan cut him off with a look.

“Did you ever put your name anywhere on your channel or in your videos?”

“Not exactly, but the name of my channel is literally two-thirds of my full name!”

“But you’ve never specified which person you are in the videos.”

“I have a solo video to upload I just haven’t had the time to edit it! _Oh my god_ , why is this about me, now?”

“I am trying to prove a point that if SpearB wants to remain an anonymous figure to the general public, then who am I to reveal his identity to a member of the general public, meaning _you_.” Chan and Felix were of nearly the same height, but Felix had never felt so small as he did in that moment with Chan looming over him.

“I am bound to find out anyway. He’s in my biology lecture.” Felix mumbled, trying his luck one last time.

“Oh?” Chan raised an eyebrow at the news.

Felix sighed before explaining, “I sat behind a random dude this morning and I could hear really loud trap music coming from his earphones and he was tapping on his desk a lot with his pencil, right?”

“And…?”

“And when he leaned back for a second, I could see the name, _SpearB,_ written plain as day on the paper!!!”

Chan dragged a tired hand down the length of his face, sighing.

“Well, for someone who wants to remain anonymous he’s really doing a bang-up job of it, now isn’t he?”

Felix giggled at the irony of the situation before his lips twisted into a pout, “But… I didn’t see his face. And he had his hood up so I don’t even know what his hair looks like or anything because he left class at lightning speed.”

Chan shrugged and sat back down at his desk, “At least you have it narrowed down to one person out of, how many? A hundred or so?”

The younger boy sighed dramatically and fell back onto the pillows of Chan’s bed. He felt the weight of everything that happened throughout the day come crashing down and realized how exhausted it made him. He laid there quietly, the clicking of the keys on Chan’s laptop keyboard filled the silence between them. Felix had not even realized that he was falling asleep until Chan’s voice jolted him awake.

“You know, part of me thinks this is hilarious, but the other part of me is lowkey/highkey offended that this means you haven’t listened to anything from 3RACHA. Because if you _had_ listened to something, you would have realized that he’s in 3RACHA, too.” Chan scratched the back of his head, “Honestly, how did you even find SpearB in the first place and how did you _not_ find 3RACHA through him, the channels are _linked_ for goodness sake.”

“WHY DIDN’T YOU MENTION THIS FROM THE BEGINNING?! Oh my god I have to go listen to those right now.” Felix sat straight up on the bed and moved to grab his phone from where it was charging next to Chan’s laptop on the desk, but Chan had spun around in his desk chair and pushed him back toward the bed before he could reach it.

“Or, you can listen to them later and rest for now. I promised Hyunjin you were in good hands, and you’re obviously exhausted since you almost fell asleep while you were laying down just now.  And don’t think I didn’t notice when you almost dozed off in my car, too.”

Felix wanted to argue back, but his yawn cut off any argument he would have had for the other. Instead he rolled his eyes and laid back down without getting under the blankets. He was still freezing, even in Chan’s too-big hoodie and sweats, but he didn’t want to be anymore of a burden to his hyung than he already was.

“Take a nap. Woojin should be back within the next couple of hours with chicken for dinner and Minho is coming by when he gets done with his classes, too.”

Felix was listening to Chan talk, but he was only _just_ barely registering everything. His body was more exhausted than he imagined, quickly shutting down and succumbing to sleep.

 

**CHANGBIN:**

Changbin thanked all the weather gods in existence as he stepped outside the biology building. The sky was still fairly overcast, but the sun was fighting to be seen through them. Honestly, he was just ecstatic that he didn’t need the umbrella he no longer had in his possession.

The pony-tail boy had been on his mind through the majority of the lab. Changbin wondered endlessly how someone could be as pretty as the stranger, but he found it especially unfair that someone looked so pretty when the stranger was clearly in a panicked rush in the middle of a fucking torrential downpour.

He managed to pay attention here and there when the lab tech went over their lab manuals and when they would need it and which materials they would cover throughout the semester. The tech announced that the pre-lab at the front of the manuals would need to be completed before their next session in a week’s time and let them go with a couple of minutes left to spare.

Changbin walked through the courtyard with frigid toes and contemplated taking his shoes and socks off and walking barefoot on the warm concrete. He’d nearly forgotten about sending a text to Chan until the phone of a passerby chimed with a notification.

He had walked halfway across campus already, but he figured now would be as good of a head’s up as any other time.

 **TO: ChannieHyuuung**  
5:45PM  
○ you free right now?  
○ class let out early and I wanted to show you some lyrics.  
○ :3c

 **FROM: ChannieHyuuung**  
5:47PM  
○ come over  
○ minho’s roommate is over rn

Changbin let Chan know that it was fine; he had heard a bit about Minho’s roommate here and there when he and Minho talked on the phone. And there was also the time Minho’s roommate answered the phone in place of him. Changbin was still shaken a bit by the deepness of his voice, and it made him curious as to what the baritone could possibly look like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this was so late, but it's also much longer than the other chapters. i hope you enjoyed!
> 
> twitters: @/ash_tin & @/changIixxed
> 
> unbeta'd; will be editing after it is tho ^^


	4. Change of Face

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! Please enjoy this update and you'll all be happy to know I'm already halfway through the next one ^^ Thanks for being patient with me
> 
> unedited, please let me know if there are any extreme mistakes!

**CHANGBIN  
  
  
FROM: ChannnnieHyung  
****5:50PM  
** ○hey don’t knock when you get here  
○ I’m going to leave the door ajar  
○ just come in

The messages came just as Changbin entered the elevator that lead up to Chan and Woojin’s floor, yet he _still_ brought his hand up, on instinct, to knock on their door. Luckily, he caught himself just before he could go through with it and pushed the door open instead.

“Hello?” He called into the empty common area after shutting and locking the door behind him. 

“Shh. Keep your voice down.” Chan suddenly poked his head out of his bedroom and disappeared back inside not even two seconds later.

Changbin maneuvered his way around the familiar space and into Chan’s door frame just as the older settled a blanket over a sleeping form in his bed.

 _Oh, that must be Minho’s roommate._ Changbin thought to himself while Chan moved to unplug his laptop and exit his bedroom as quietly as possible.

“That was kind of adorable.” Changbin teased the older when they were finally settled on the couch, lyrics and Chan’s laptop out and displayed on the long coffee table in front of them.

Chan smiled sheepishly and leaned into the back of the couch. “Minho’s roommate is also my old friend from back home. Today was the first my first time seeing him in almost eight years. I feel bad because he’s had a pretty shit first day.”

“Poor thing.” Changbin sympathized. He could definitely relate with the whole first day being shitty aspect.

“So…” The elder moved so that he sat at the edge of the couch and pulled his laptop closer to the both of them.  “Lyrics?”

“Right. Lyrics.” Changbin softly clapped his hands together, not wanting to disturb the boy in the room over, and pulled a fresh spiral-bound notebook from his backpack. “I was able to write a bit this morning before my biology lecture started.”

Changbin sounded thrilled to be able to talk with Chan about his writing process, but Chan struggled to keep his big mouth shut about Felix. Changbin’s next sentence definitely didn’t help Chan’s struggle.

 “But,” He looked up at Chan, face set with a fond smile, but Chan hadn’t missed the sad tone in his voice. Changbin bit at his lip before continuing, “I’m thinking about changing some of the words up, now.”

 Chan spied another small grin Changbin sported when he’d gone silent. 

“Right.” The older dead-panned after a few moments of silence. “Well, would you like to share with the class, Changbin-ssi?”

Changbin’s expression changed into a scowl at Chan’s tone, “Yeah yeah, whatever.”

He made a show of opening up his notebook and flipping through several pages before pausing on one that was only half-filled.

“ _For You?_ ” Chan questioned the title when Changbin shoved the notebook into his lap.

“It’s a working title… for now.” Changbin pulled at the hem of his shirt. He always became a ball of nerves when someone read over his raw lyrics, straight from his brain and to the page, but this was even more nerve-inducing. He wanted to use these lyrics for a _3RACHA_ song, but they would have to pass through Chan _and_ Jisung first.

Chan nodded, understanding as his eyes scanned the page.

“ _The process of running towards your objective, Only to have your passion just shown in the results…”_ Chan read out loud and Changbin cringed inwardly at his own words. He couldn’t bear to even _look_ at Chan’s face while he read the rest in his head, so he completely missed the brilliant grin that graced the elder’s face a few moments later. “These are… seriously fantastic lyrics, Binnie.”

Changbin’s face positively lit up at the praise. “Really?”

“Of course! Your lyrics are always brilliant, so I don’t really understand why you always get so nervous and fidgety when someone reads them.” Chan giggled and shook his head at Changbin with a fond smile on his lips.

“I’m curious, though.” Chan picked up the notebook and flicked the top of the paper where the title was scrawled out in English. “Does this mean you thought of someone while writing these?”

Changbin hesitated. Had he thought of someone? Initially, the lyrics had been of his own personal need for comfort through the hardships of his new academic endeavors, but after his encounter with the stranger in the rain he wanted to send the other words of encouragement even if it was through a song the other was likely to never hear.

He nodded his head slowly with a hum, “Not anyone I know personally, but yeah, I thought of someone.”

Chan smiled as he scrolled through possible compositions to offer up, the notebook of lyrics cast aside on the coffee table. “Well… then it will be just _that_ more special once it’s finished, yeah?”

Changbin worried his bottom lip between his teeth without answering Chan; his mind had somehow found its way back to wondering about the ash-blonde boy with the pretty lips. He hoped the other boy had gotten somewhere warm and dry and changed out of his sopping wet clothing. He wondered if this stranger preferred coffee or tea, and whether he liked to drink them hot or cold, though after a day such as the one he’d gone through Changbin hoped he would choose something warm to drink. If-

“Hello? Earth to Binnie…?”

“Sorry. I just—” He had to go. He wanted to write more, he could feel his fingers itching to grab for the damn pen Chan had been twirling about the entire time they were talking and finish off another verse or two. “I have to go now.”

If Changbin was anxious about showing his lyrics to others, then _writing_ them in front of someone on the spot was terrifying to him. As much as he loved and trusted Chan, he wasn’t ready for that.

“Woojin is picking up some chicken for dinner. I think he’s stopping at the new place across campus… You’re welcome to stick around and have a bite, if you want.” Chan offered fruitlessly. He knew Changbin had already made his mind up about leaving.

“Thanks for the offer, really,” Changbin stood up to gather his belongings and carefully place them back into his bag. “But Mark said he was going to buy a pizza in exchange for me looking over his introductory essay for his creative writing class or something of the sort.” It wasn’t a lie, Mark really had asked as much while they were in the café earlier that day, but the essay wasn’t due for a week and he had plenty of time to look over it on any other day. Still, it made for a good excuse to duck out without seeming rude.

He reached for the notebook full of lyrics that still lay open on the coffee table, but Chan swiped it out of his grasp before he could begin to close it.

“Bin…” Chan began, mouth twisted into a questioning pout and eyebrows furrowed together. “Do you always pen your name, well, stage name, at the top like this?” He flicked the top of the paper where _SpearB_ was displayed alone, the harsh graphite lines appearing softer thanks to cheap dormitory lighting.

“I…” Changbin scratched at his cheek absently, expression bewildered. “I mean… I guess it was just out of habit. I didn’t even realize I did that.”

Chan quirked an eyebrow and huffed, “Huh… Not so good at trying to remain anonymous, are we? Did you at least check to make sure no one was sitting behind you this morning when you were writing?”

Changbin’s eyes widened, “Oh my God!”

Both boys blanched at his raised voice. Changbin sent an apologetic glance to Chan who was eyeing his bedroom door in fear of the noise waking their Sleeping Beauty.

“I am actually an idiot.” Changbin continued in an intense whisper.

Chan rolled his eyes and tossed the open notebook back onto the coffee table while Changbin’s breakdown spiraled even further, “I’ll have to switch seats, now. At least I was wearing a hood over my head. That, and I all but sprinted out of class when it was over. There’s no way anyone actually saw me, but… ugh.” He paused to pout, his tense shoulders slumped in defeat. “I’ll just be more careful from now on.”

Chan’s knowing smirk faltered and an uneasy feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. That would have to do for now. At the very least, Felix wouldn’t be able spring up on him through their shared class as long as Changbin _really_ made the effort to be careful from then on out.

“Alright… Well—”

A soft knock interrupted Chan’s speech.

Changbin, already standing, moved to open the door without bothering to check the knocker’s identity through the peep-hole. He smiled brightly at his best friend that stood on the other side of the door, but it quickly fell at the sight of his friend’s worried expression.

“What? Is something wrong, Hyung?” He asked in earnest and moved to lay a hand on the elder’s shoulder. Minho brushed Changbin to the side without much force and spoke to Chan with a sense of urgency.

“Where is he? Is he okay?!”

Chan was on his feet and consoling Minho as soon as the other had begun his rapid-fire speech. Chan shushed him before answering his questions. “He’s fine, he’s asleep. Do you want to see?”

Minho’s head bobbed up and down hastily. Chan directed him from behind while holding on to Minho’s shoulders until they stood together in front of Chan’s bedroom door. Minho opened it just a crack and peered inside at which Changbin saw the older visibly relax, shoulders falling in relief when he saw his younger roommate’s sleeping form.

Changbin ignored the minuscule bite of jealousy that gnawed at his gut and smiled when the two turned to face him again. Minho almost looked apologetic once he saw Changbin’s forced expression.

“Sorry, Binnie… I’m just a little bit protective of my roommate. He really had me worried on the phone earlier. Everything has been so hectic today.” Minho paused his rapid speech to breathe and Changbin took the opportunity to hug his best friend. He smiled as the jealousy melted away with a newfound understanding.

“You’re a great friend, you know that?” Changbin smiled even wider at the pout Minho sported once he was released from the comforting embrace.

“I just… He was probably so scared on his own…” Minho let out a small whine

“It’s okay, hyung. _He’s_ okay. You saw him, didn’t you?”

Minho sighed but nodded his head slowly. Yes, he had seen Felix’s sleeping outline in Chan’s bed. His mind had immediately gone to worrying about Felix’s frozen suite and how he was absolutely _not_ going to let him sleep in it for the night.

“I have to get going now, but you will have to introduce me to him sometime soon. I need to meet whoever was able to snatch your heart up so quickly like this. Oh my, what would Ji make of this?” Changbin teased, snickering when Minho shot him a glare for bringing up his unrequited crush. He glanced at Chan, who had gone back to working on his laptop, “Hyung seems pretty damn smitten as well. He must be pretty cool.”

Chan looked up and raised his eyebrows suggestively. “I have a feeling you are going to love him just as much, Binnie. If not more than any of us.”

Minho spoke up before Changbin could question the eldest in the room.

“Honestly though, he is so precious, Binnie! I will make sure to introduce you to him when he’s feeling up to it.”

“Christ, Minho, he’s taking a nap, not on his deathbed.” Chan retorted with an eye-roll.

“Okay, deal!” Changbin giggled as he stuffed his lyric notebook in his bag. “But for now, I have to go before my own _precious_ roommate begins to worry where I’m at.”

“Okay, I’ll text you later.” Minho smiled as he plopped his bottom on the couch. Chan gave the younger a disproving glance at his actions before turning back to Changbin. “See you later, Bin. Don’t forget about writing your name in the notebook…” He trailed off.

Changbin had one foot out the door, “Ah, right! I got it, I got it! Don’t worry.” And with a half-assed wave behind him, he was gone.

-

Minho hung the upper half of his body upside down over the arm rest of the couch and sighed quietly, but still full of signature Minho-esque dramatics. “How long has he been sleeping for?”

“Hmmm, around two hours or so? He took a shower and tried to dry out some of the stuff he had in his backpack before he fell asleep.”

As if on cue, Minho turned his head to investigate the bathroom where he spied a few textbook and spiral notebooks laying on the counter to dry. On the floor was the bright blue backpack Minho had grown accustom to kicking out of the entryway to his own dormitory. He smiled at the familiarity of if until he saw—“Oh, Felix has the same umbrella as me.”

He huffed when Chan only hummed back in acknowledgement.

“Except I lent mine to Changbin a few weeks ago when he mentioned forgetting to pack one. Small world he has the exact same one.”

Chan’s brows furrowed, only now remembered a few bits of their otherwise silent trip from the biology building to the dorms. “It’s not his.”

Minho sat up, about to question what the he meant by that, but he was speaking before Minho could begin to ask.

“Felix said he needed to thank the guy that lent him the umbrella. Someone gave it to him to use but he was too embarrassed to look up and see who it was… Minho…”

“No way.” Minho whispered.

Chan hugged his legs to his chest. “Changbin… mentioned he was coming here from his biology lab.”

“Oh my god.”

“These two combined… are a piece of god damn work.” Chan sighed and rested his chin in the crease between his knees.

“What a fucking coincidence.” Minho breathed out, still cautious of the boy sleeping in the next room over.

“There’s something else.” Chan mumbled before he lifted his head to make eye contact with Minho.

“There’s _more_?!” He whisper-shouted in response.

“Felix… He knows who SpearB is.”

Minho’s face twisted in confusion. “What do you mean by that, hyung?”

“He recognized Bin’s stage name on one of the 3RACHA mix-tape album arts I have hanging in my room.”

“Well… that should make things easier, right? Changbin will probably be happy to have someone who is enthusiastic about—”

“I don’t think he should know.”

“What?”

“I think Bin should wait it out. He should wait to tell him after Felix has gotten to know him, you know?”

“No,” Minho held a hand up as if it would stop Chan from saying something else stupid. “I’m really not following you right now, hyung.” He lowered his hand but gave the elder a look that said he wasn’t finished speaking. Chan stayed quiet to hear him out.

“Say… say that they meet, which _will_ happen, hyung. Felix is _my_ roommate _,_ and Changbin is _my_ best friend. How on Earth do you expect me to keep quiet about-“ He aimlessly gestured around the air between them. “-all of this?!” Minho was back to whisper-shouting as quietly as he could, but his exaggerated hand movements spoke louder than any of his words.

Chan, in the love-seat across the way, felt each syllable down to his bones, but he was not about to change his mind. “I’m sorry for loading this on you, Min, but I am just looking out for them. They’re both my friends, too.”

They both sat in silence for one, two beats, before the lock on the entrance door turned and the door clicked open. Woojin walked in with an arm full of bags and Chan sighed in hopes that this would signal the end of the conflict for the time being. He jumped up to take a few bags out of his roommate’s hands.

Minho leaned back into the couch and crossed his legs. “I still don’t like it. There’s no possible way this will end well _if_ and _when_ Felix finds out.”

Chan dragged a hand down the length of his face and Woojin made a questioning noise that was directed at Minho.

“Eh? When Felix finds out about what?” He could feel the tense air between the other two occupants in the room.

He looked toward Minho, “Why do you look so mad?” He pointed a finger toward Chan, “And why are you helping me, are you sick or something?”

Chan pursed his lips and gave his roommate an incredulous look.

“Sick in the head, yes, he is.” Minho grumbled to himself and pulled his phone out. He had no intentions whatsoever of helping Chan explain everything over again for Woojin. “Mental, absolutely crazy, he is.” He mumbled once again while he mindlessly scrolled through his Instagram feed.

“Well, yeah, it is definitely one of your dumbest ideas, but I can at least see where you’re coming from as a friend through both of them.” Woojin commented after Chan finished explaining himself.

Minho scoffed and threw his phone down on the unoccupied space beside him.

“Now I just have to figure out how to tell Hyunjin…”

Woojin pulled his eyes away from the syllabus he’d been skimming through and looked up at Chan, eyes questioning.

“Hyunjinnie? Why?”

Minho raised an eyebrow at the Australian boy. He could feel another headache coming on and got up to find the bottle of Aspirin he knew the older two kept in the bathroom cabinet.

“Well, Felix is signed under an agency for his modeling, right?”

“You’re joking.” Minho spoke to his own reflection in the bathroom mirror and made eye contact with Chan’s own reflection from where he stood in the common area outside of it. “Please tell me you’re joking.” He pleaded at Chan when he was back in the common area.

“There’s been too many fuck-all coincidences today, please tell me you are joking about this one, hyung.”

Chan blanched at Woojin’s loud laughter. “This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder, oh my word.”

**__________________**

Felix’s nose twitched as he regained consciousness. He moved to scratch at his cheek only to be met with a face full of fabric. The sleeves on his hoodie were way too big and his room felt way too stuffy, it was almost suffocating. He kicked at the covers blindly, still not fully awake and aware enough to warrant needing his eyes open, only to be confused when neither of his feet made contact with any of the stuffed animals that took up at least ninety percent of his bed’s surface.

Felix slowly peeled one eye open and used his over-sized sleeve to wipe the sleep out of both of them until he could see properly. He blinked owlishly, suddenly realizing the room he was in was not his own, nor the bed or clothes.

He groaned; memories of the day leading up to his nap hit like a wave. He didn’t have much time to dwell on them before hearing hushed voices outside the bedroom door quickly followed by a booming laugh that scared Felix so much that he flinched.

The brightly lit digits on Chan’s clock glared at Felix from where it sat on his desk. It was only half past six in the evening, but to Felix it felt like the middle of the night.

His nose twitched again as it registered the smell that had woke him in the first place: chicken. His stomach growled, the sound harsh and low, but effective, as the sleepy boy promptly drug himself from the bed and padded across the room to the door.

Upon slowly swinging it open he saw three boys: Minho and Chan stood only a few feet away from where Felix hesitated in the doorway, while one boy he only vaguely recognized sat on the arm rest of the love-seat next to the entryway.

Minho’s heart dropped into his stomach at the sight of his pitiful looking roommate stepped out of Chan’s bedroom. His hair stuck up in every which way, remnants of sleep clung to his freckles and tired eyes.

“MY BABYYYYY” Minho cried out when he’d come back to his senses. He quickly closed the small space between himself and Felix and cupped the younger’s face between his hands. “Are you feeling okay? Did you sleep alright? Are you hungry? I’m sorry if we woke you up!”

He didn’t pass up the moment to glance away from Felix and glare daggers at the boy who still sat on the love-seat armrest, which only then gave the boy a full view of Felix’s face.

A small gasp came from one of the older boys in the room followed by a quiet, “Wow.”

Chan raised an eyebrow at his roommate, “What was that for?”

Woojin only shook his head, “There’s really no question as to why he’s a model along side Hyunjin. Just… Wow, he’s beautiful.”

Felix felt a little loopy, still half-asleep, but the compliment from the older boy quickly sobered him up. A blush crept up the sides of his neck and seeped into his cheeks. Chan, having observed the entire exchange, laughed loudly at the younger’s reaction before he stepped in to introduce the pair to each other.

“Felix, this is my roommate and my best friend, Woojin! He was in the photo you saw in my room, earlier. And Woojin, this is Felix! I’ve known him since I was little and still lived in Australia.”

Felix smiled sheepishly and gave the oldest a small wave from around Minho’s, now koala’d, position across the front of his body.

“Well, are you hungry, Felix?” Woojin asked him with a warm smile and gestured at the bags of food on the coffee table between them.

“Starved, actually.” He replied with a grateful smile as Minho pulled him over to the couch where they would eat.

-

“Hyung. I’m _fine_. I can sleep in my own ro-“

Felix was hushed with a single finger placed over his lips. He recalled the day he’d first met the older boy and how similar of a situation they were in, yet again. Felix wondered if this would be a frequent occurrence between the two of them.

“You’re sleeping in my room. I won’t be accepting any further argument.” He pulled away his finger and grabbed Felix’s backpack and bag of wet clothes from the younger's hands and nudged the him toward the bathroom. “Go wash up. I’m sure you can just sleep in Chan’s clothes for the night.”

Felix hesitated for a moment before, “And where are you going?” He questioned as the older turned to slip his shoes back on.

“I’m going to throw these in the wash before they begin to smell.” Minho explained and raised up the bag of clothes. He deposited Felix’s backpack on the love-seat next to their door and grabbed one of the small detergent pods from the container that sat next to their kitchenette space before moving to leave. “Hyung should have taken care of it while you were still asleep, but I guess he got too busy with his compositions, again.” Minho shrugged.

“Anyway, I’ll be right back. If you want any specific animal to sleep with I’ll grab it from your room when I get back. _Don’t_ go in there until you get back from work tomorrow.”

Felix rolled his eyes.

“You roll your eyes, now, but you will be thanking me when you don’t have a runny nose and fever in the morning.” Minho smirked and let the door slam shut behind him.

Felix looked back at the closed door to his bedroom and sighed.

As much as he felt like a kid to follow around the orders of his roommate, he knew the elder was right. He made a mental note in that moment to contact maintenance about his broken A/C sooner rather than later.

He was already half asleep when the older boy returned and brought in a random stuffed animal since Felix had not been awake enough to choose one on his own. He weakly protested when he felt the other side of the bed dip under Minho’s weight but the older only shushed him and told him to go to sleep. Half-asleep Felix decided that he didn’t mind the extra body heat and cuddles of someone else beside him and soon drifted back into a deep sleep once again.

 

**TUESDAY:**

Felix woke to someone, Minho, lightly shaking him back and forth. He cracked an eye open and wanted to curse when he saw that the room was still dark, meaning the sun hadn’t even come up yet.

“Rise and shine, cutie~!” Minho cooed softly before running his hand over Felix’s hair to tame a few strays here and there. “You have piano lessons at eight, right?”

Felix groaned when the elder’s warm hand abandoned his head. “Fuuuuuuck me, why on earth did I think a double major was a good idea?”

“In your defense, it’s just a minor, not a double major. They’re only making you do a fraction of the course-load that most music majors have to go through.” Minho rummaged through his wardrobe for a moment before pulling a pair of sweats and a muscle tee from separate drawers. “I dunno if you want to get breakfast at the dining hall or not, but there's a container of strawberry protein powder in the bottom cabinet beside the fridge if you would rather just make yourself a shake.”

Minho walked out of the dark room, leaving Felix to squint at the bright light that shone through the doorway. “Or,” Minho continued from outside his room, “There’s also a couple boxes of cereal. We just need to use up the rest of the milk before it goes bad.”

“Cereal has too many carbs.” Felix mumbled into Minho’s comforter as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He didn’t have any particular plans for breakfast, but a protein shake would probably do him good. He’d been slacking on his diet ever since Minho had moved into the dorm with him and supplied them with endless sugary sweets and snacks that would earn a mighty glare from his manager if he ever found out.

Felix finally crawled out of his roommate’s bed when he heard the shower cut on. He was surprised at the amount of text notifications he’d received, but not surprised that they were all sent from Hyunjin and their manager.

 **FROM: Manager-hyungnim  
****5:30AM  
** ○ Good morning, Felix! I will pick you up from the dormitory building immediately following your morning classes. You will have your Korean lesson as soon as we arrive back to the company and then we will head to the shop for your hair appointment after lunch. Free time is from 2:00PM-3:00PM and then we will depart to pick Hyunjin up from school and head to the location for your shoot that is scheduled for 4:00PM.  
**5:33AM**  
○ Have a good breakfast and pay attention in class. See you in a bit!

 **FROM: Hyunjinnie~  
6:07AM  
** ○ LIX  
○ Hyung said the shoot is at 4 this afternoon.  
○ pls make sure he packs snacks  
**6:08AM**  
○ i’m always starving after class i beg u  
**6:12AM**  
○ see u later. hope ur feeling better today.  
○ fighting~!

He smiled at the last few messages, grateful to have a friend like Hyunjin. Felix put his phone back on the bed and grabbed the clothes he figured Minho must have brought in from his bedroom while he was still asleep and began to change. He was grateful for all of his friends, really. He spent the rest of his time getting ready and thinking of ways he could repay Chan and Woojin for their hospitality the day before.

His 8:00AM piano class went fairly well. Felix relearned how to position both of his hands on the piano keys and how to run the five-note scales and arpeggios in half of the major key signatures. His professor was a stout old woman with thin, mousy hair that she kept in a low braid that hung almost past the backs of her knees. He finished the piano class feeling much more confident in his rusty skills, not having so much as looked at a piano in years, and it gave him an overall good feeling about the how his semester in the class would go.

He didn’t notice the glances of a student that belonged to the class directly after his. The student had come early, at least fifteen minutes before Felix’s class was scheduled to end, but the professor let him take a seat at one of the keyboards at the far end of the room and dabble at the keys as long as he kept the headphones plugged in. Felix thanked the professor when his time was up and left the room without realizing he was being watched.

He stopped at the lounge that was located in the middle of the long main hallway of the music building and swiped his card at the vending machine for a bottle of water before he made his way over to the dance annex. It was a farther walk to the dance annex than to the university’s theater, where his other two dance classes took place. Granted, the two studios inside the theater building were small and cramped, and absolutely nothing compared to the beautiful interior of the dance annex. Felix felt at home when he set foot inside the one-room building that consisted of a small seated area for an audience and a very spacious dance studio with mirrors all across the surrounding three walls.

Felix sat his dance bag down in one of the audience seats and made quick work to help set out the ballet barres that were stored in a makeshift storage space in a room under the raised seating area. He was surprised at the size of the class; ten students, including himself! The professor of the Technique class seemed pleasantly surprised as well seeing as dance wasn’t the most common of majors despite the university itself specializing in “Science & _Arts._ ”

He only got the chance to check his phone during his walk back to the dorm. He smiled warmly at the notifications of messages he’d received from Minho and Chan and opened them eagerly.

 **FROM: Minnie-hyung**  
**9:46AM**  
○ hey  
○ I know you have work right after class and I won’t see you until you get back later  
○ but don’t overwork yourself, alright?  
○ take frequent breaks and drink lots of water and eat a nice lunch and bring snacks bc snacks are awesome  
○ take care I’ll see you later ♥

 **FROM: Chris  
****10:07AM**  
○ hey buddy, how you feeling this morning?  
○ Hyunjin bothered me like crazy last night to make sure you were okay  
○ he’ll probably be all over you at work  
○ but don’t worry it’s just because he cares ok ^^

His manager’s van was parked at the front of his dorm building, the older boy (somewhere still in his 20s, but Felix wasn’t too sure) waved him on when Felix signaled that he would be right back and hurried up the stairs to drop off his dance bag and grab a change of clothes.

-

“So,” His manager began once they were walking into the company building. “Big changes today, huh?”

“I suppose, if I’m scheduled nearly two hours at the shop.”

“I think they’re doing hair _and_ makeup on you while you’re there so that Hyunjin can get his makeup done while you do your solo bits once we get to the venue.”

“Oh.” Felix answered. He supposed it did make a bit more sense to do things like that, so they would have more time once the shoot began.

Felix managed to pay attention well enough throughout his Korean lesson, and he was even able to finish a whole chapter’s worth of vocabulary with the leftover self-study time at the end of the lesson.

His stomach begged for sustenance once the lesson was over. He wondered what his friends were doing for their lunch as he swiped his pass to enter the elevator and pressed the button that would bring him to the company’s top floor restaurant.

He fixed his plate with his usual grilled chicken breast, salad, a selection of finger fruits, and a dinner roll and seated himself at a table that looked out one of the wide windows facing the busy part of the city. Felix wished Hyunjin was there to eat with him. Any of his friends would have done well enough to keep him company, though. Even Woojin, as little of time as he knew the older, it would be a nice opportunity to get to know him a little better.

Felix sent off a text to Chan asking him to pass his phone number along to the older boy’s roommate and extended the lunch invitation to both of them if they were ever free for it during the times Felix would be on campus. 

He didn’t worry or even begin to wonder about the changes that were going to be made on his hair until he climbed out of the front seat of the van and walked inside the salon. It smelled heavily of product, heated hair, acetone, and some sort of tropical air freshener as a poor attempt to mask the harsh odors. Felix didn’t mind them, though. He found comfort in the familiar sights and smells as he had grown up sitting in salon chairs almost on a daily basis due to the early age at which he’d started modeling.

“Felix-ssi!” A petite girl with a pretty face and long eyelashes called from the reception desk. “Eunhye asks that you wait for her in the chair. She’s going to consult with you about what you’re getting done, first. Okay?”

Felix grinned and nodded. He’d grown attached to his personal cosmetologist, but she wasn’t _always_ available when he had to have something done. He was glad she’d been available today, especially if he was going to be sitting there for two whole hours.

“Heya, ‘Lix. How have you been today?” Eunhye greeted him with a smile before she began to raise the chair up by pumping the lever with her foot. She’d come with a rolling cart with hair dye already mixed in separate bowls and any other tools she might need to work on his hair.

“Good, actually. Classes were earlier than any human being would like them to be, but that’s life.”

Eunhye laughed with him at the last comment and continued small talk with Felix while she draped the salon cape around him. It was lavender, the only one she used on Felix ever since he had pointed out that he loved the color the first time they’d met.

“Alright, remember when we sat here all afternoon getting your hair to that _beautiful_ Barbie platinum blonde?” Felix nodded and Eunhye continued, “Well thank goodness we’re _not_ going to go through that mess again, today!”

She began spritzing his hair with a bottle of water and combing through the long locks with her fingers. “We haven’t had a proper cut since that day, either. Goodness! Your hair is so long!” Felix giggled at her small outbursts and waited for her to finally tell him what they were going to do.

“I hope you weren’t attached to this length, sweetie.”

“I mean, it made for some really nice hair styles, and I really rocked the man bun and a cute half-ponytail.”

“Oh my gosh, please tell me you took selfies with them!”

 _Snip._ The first lock of ash-blonde hair fell, without a sound, to the tiled floor.

“Unfortunately, I did not.”

_Snip. Snip. Snip._

“Ah, well there is always next time. I’m sure with a face like yours, that definitely won’t be the last time they’ll want you to grow it out like that. Anyway, we're taking you back to brown today, as you can see by the lovely smells beside me.” Eunhye nodded her head toward the bowls of dye and Felix smiled, but kept his head still for her. He’d never cared about what color his hair got to be, but he was glad it was a darker one this time around. His blonde hair suited him just fine, but it caused a lot of attention whether he wanted it or not. At least after today he would be able to blend in with the crowd a bit better. He giggled at the thought of his own roommate not being able to recognize him with such a change and suddenly couldn’t wait to see Minho’s reaction when he returned back to their dorm later.

“Alright, love.” Eunhye spun the chair around so that Felix could see himself in the mirror again. He snickered at the sight, “Yeah, you look hella funny right now. But it’s going to stay that way for the next thirty minutes under the dryer, alright?”

“Okay.” Felix followed her to the area where the dryers were and let Eunhye situate a plastic cap over his head to keep the dye from getting on anything before she lowered the dryer over his head.

“Try not to let your head fall around the edge of this thing, okay? Don’t want your pretty forehead or your ears getting burned!” He almost nodded back at her before realizing his head would very easily hit the dryer if he did. “Call for me if you need anything! I’m going to go talk with Shinha about the makeup.”

She put the dryer on a timer and flipped the switch on and left Felix alone while the dye worked its magic.

Thirty minutes passed quickly, all thanks to a few rounds in Battlegrounds here, a full ten aggravating minutes of Flappy Bird there, and a whole lot of scrolling through Instagram and Twitter feeds.

“Alright,” Felix nearly jumped in place when Eunhye appeared out of nowhere. He had been too engrossed in yet another game of Flappy Bird to even notice that the dryer had switched itself off almost five minutes ago. “Let’s go get this junk washed out, shall we?”

The color was a softer brown than the color of the dye that Eunhye had painted onto his head suggested, but he _loved_ it. There were coppery-red tones that were visible when the light caught him just right and Eunhye squealed when she talked about how _nice_ it was going to turn out in the photos from today. “Please make sure to get me a copy of whatever these photos are going into when they’re released, alright? I’m going to display them on my shelf, here!”

Felix told her that he would make sure of it, like he always did. He enjoyed the fact that she liked to proudly display her work at her station. His hairdresser back in Australia did the same thing.

Felix experienced his first feeling of homesickness in that moment. His heart fell when he thought about the friends and coworkers he’d gone ahead of and left behind. They’d all been proud of him and swore up and down they would be cheering him on from afar, but he missed them all so much.

The feeling disappeared almost instantly when the makeup artist, Shinha, rolled a new cart over to Eunhye’s station. He knew what would come next the instant he spied the TEMPTU Pro brand compressor and various bottles of foundation, concealer, bronzer, and blushes.

Airbrushing was one of Felix’s lesser favorite methods of makeup, but he was always amused by how doll-like he looked once Shinha was finished.

Eunhye smiled apologetically when she saw the look Felix had given the cart of makeup and promised to finish up with it as fast as possible and send him on his way. He perked up at the thought of Hyunjin’s reaction to the change in his appearance and tried not to let it bother him too much as his freckles disappeared before his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New Boii readers: your update will be tomorrow! Thanks for leaving me lots of love both here and there! I love you guys so much, thank you for the kind words. They keep me motivated!
> 
> Not much of Changbin in this chapter, but the next one will be SO FUN ^^ I'm looking forward to posting it so much. Thanks again for reading, you guys!
> 
> twitter: @ash_tin/@changlixxed  
> cc: curiouscat.me/ashtin


	5. Headshot.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hyunjin is feisty good friend goals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a small filler to go before the next chapter because Wednesday is gonna be a doozy! Also the news of MIXTAPE #3 being For You has made me even more eager to release this chapter! Sorry for the short length, but the next CH will make up for it! ^^

**FELIX: TUESDAY AFTERNOON**

“Wow.” Hyunjin carelessly dropped his school bag on the floorboard of the van and shoved his face right up in Felix’s. “I want to touch your hair, but I know Eunhye-noona would absolutely murder me on the spot!”

The older pouted and reached his hand out, his index finger just _barely_ ghosted over the top of Felix’s cheeks.

“I can’t even see the freckles that are usually visible even through your normal foundation…” Hyunjin’s face twisted into a more pitiful pout. “What did they _do_ to you?”

“Airbrush. Shinha-noona did it.” Felix sighed.

“Ah. That explains it.” Hyunjin matched his tired sigh.

Felix grabbed a canvas bag from over the passenger seat and pulled out a giant Zip-Loc bag full of grapes and cherry tomatoes. Hyunjin’s eyes lit up at the sight and shoved his hand into the mouth of the bag once Felix had worked it open.

“Bless up!” The older model said around a mouthful of grapes.

The two of them snacked in silence for a few moments before Hyunjin spoke again, “What on earth are we doing today that _they_ don’t want to see your freckles, though?”

Their manager, who had stayed quiet up until then, spoke up. “The first set is new head-shots.”

Both boys snapped their heads up to meet their manager’s eyes in the rear-view mirror. The smile fell from Felix’s lips as a grimace grew on Hyunjin’s. “WHAT?!”

Felix looked out the window as Hyunjin continued.

“No, wait, Hyung… Are you serious? What the HECK?!” His voice filled the otherwise silent van. The shrillness of it bounced off the walls of the car and Felix felt his head spin just slightly.

“Hyunjin. It’s fine.” He mumbled, still watching the traffic pass them by.

“No. No, it’s not fine, Lix.”

“Hyung, do _they_ not realize how many opportunities and offers Felix got in the past _three_ months? He’s beautiful, but his freckles are a natural rarity! An arrangement that can’t be duplicated with some simple makeups. And, don’t take this the wrong way Felix, but they’re a HUGE selling point!”

In any other given situation, Felix would have laughed. There was no reason to take offense to what Hyunjin had implied because, yes, their faces were their money. That’s how they made a living. He knew this well enough and he would be stupid to _not_ be mad, or at least frustrated, at the situation he was facing now.

“I have no control over this, Hyunjin. You know that.”

“Can’t you say some-“

“Hyunjin-ah! That’s enough. I won’t go against company’s orders. And neither will you or Felix while under contract.”

Hyunjin crossed his arms in a fit. “This is so _dumb_. Not only does Felix lose money and exposure, but the company will take a loss from this as well. I hope they realize this.”

Felix felt the beginning of tears fill his eyes and he quickly grabbed for a tissue in the side pocket of his work bag. He didn’t know if they were tears because every single word Hyunjin said was right, whether he was upset because his friend was getting just as upset, or if he was moved by how far Hyunjin was going in his honor.

He was thankful, if anything, when Hyunjin was whisked away the moment they set foot inside the venue. The feisty model’s own stylists had been waiting to do his own hair and makeup while the director of the shoot pulled Felix in the opposite direction to begin his portion of the head-shots. Felix pretended he couldn’t hear Hyunjin’s protests as the two were separated and kept his mouth shut. He would throw away his emotions for now. For work.

Still, as the harsh flash made his vision spotty and the heat of the lamps surrounding him to give the _perfect_ lighting and angles caused his back to sweat under the simple black ensemble, Felix secretly wished that the head-shots would turn out shitty and that higher management would realize their mistake.

**CHANGBIN: TUESDAY MORNING**

Changbin’s hands shook ever so slightly when he grabbed for his coffee the following morning. He’d stayed up too late, _way_ too fucking late, writing lyrics. Lyrics of the song that was now completely finished and ready to be read over by Chan and Jisung once more. Another song or three had been started and an old composition Changbin had toyed around with in high school pulled back up on his laptop.

Mostly, he had only stared at it. It was something he made in hopes of submitting with his university applications. Sort of like an _“Oh, I can compose, too.”_ bit of side information just to up his chances of receiving a nice sized scholarship.

Except he didn’t.

Instead, he chose a safer option and submitted a video compilation of his singing and excerpts of his writings. He realized a bit too late that maybe he really should have sent in a composition when he was only allowed to be placed in the lowest beginning level of piano and music theory. Both of which he thought he at _least_ to the intermediate level of understanding.

He never showed the composition to Chan or Jisung. It was way too different from his usual, dark-toned style, and he was too scared that the shift wouldn’t be well received by the two people whose opinions he valued most. The piece was lighthearted, upbeat, and maybe even a _tad_ uplifting. The minimal instrumentation of acoustic guitar paired with a hint of percussion here and there gave the piece a brighter feel to it than Changbin had ever thought to use before.

It brought hope.

So, without messing around with anything in the arrangement, he spat a couple of lines from _For You_ to the first few bars and found that he hated it. Changbin absolutely loathed just how _perfect_ it paired with the messy lyrics etched into cheap notebook paper.

He hated the way the hairs on his arms stood on end when the unfinished instrumental came to an end, but he could clearly hear how it needed to finish.

He hated more than anything just how perfect it all came together.

So, he cursed the very hand that shook when he grabbed the cold plastic cup filled to the brim with his “life juice” has Mark had begun calling it.

The same hand, with help from the other, that refused to rest just hours prior until the damned composition file was marked as _complete._

He thanked himself, because at the very least, he hadn’t been stupid enough to take 8AM classes _all_ week long. Instead, his piano lesson wasn’t scheduled until half-past nine in the morning.

Still, he cursed himself, along with his dumb hands, for having to be early to everything, too. Which is how he found himself in the piano lab, dabbling at the keys of an empty keyboard, a whole thirty minutes before his class was even scheduled to begin.

Past the heads of other students, Changbin spied the top of a familiar head of hair. Ash-blonde fell into a mess of slightly frizzy tangles. Changbin smiled, he couldn’t see the person’s face, but he sensed that it belonged to the boy he’d interrupted in theory the morning prior.

He willed himself to focus on the keys in front of him, warming up his unpracticed fingers as they floated across the faux-ivory by memory. He looked to the student at the keyboard directly next to him and noticed how he struggled to keep his left hand a mirror of his right while remembering to move his right pinky-finger at the same time as his left thumb. This class would surely be an easy A.

“Perfect! You catch on fast, dear!” Changbin heard the praise around his headphone set and glanced up to see the piano professor patting Blondie, Changbin’s temporary nickname for the kid, on his back gently. If the student replied, it was too hushed to hear through his headset. It left Changbin wishing that he’d sat at one of the empty keyboards closer to the front of the room. At least then he would have had more of a chance to see Blondie’s face.

With only minutes left in the class, Changbin pulled out his composition book to write down a couple of melodies he was able to come up with while warming up and wondered if he’d ever make anything from them.

He looked up just in time to see the familiar sight of Blondie’s waves retreating from the classroom and sighed. He’d pay more attention in their next theory class. Changbin would make the effort to see his face, even if he had no real reason to back up _why_ he needed to see it.

“Whatcha lookin’ at?”

Changbin jumped at the sudden question before he realized he’d still been staring at the empty doorway.

“Or should I ask, _who_ ya looking at?” Yerim questioned him with a sly smile. She slid into the seat of the keyboard across from his and took out her book.

“None of your business.” Changbin rolled his eyes but smiled back at her, glad to have a familiar face in class with him. They’d only met a couple of days prior; Mark having introduced them when she’d appeared at their dorm to borrow Mark’s mini ironing board.

“This seat taken?” A bright new voice came to his left.

“It is now!” Yerim chirped up before Changbin had to chance to breathe in the boy’s direction. “By you.”

“Sweet, thanks!” The boy pulled the small piano bench back and lowered himself onto it before pulling his own book from is backpack.

“My name is Yerim! And the lovely ball of sunshine to your right is Changbin.”

“Nice to meet you both,” He nodded to each of them respectively. “My name is Park Minhyuk, and I think we actually share the same theory class, Changbin-ssi.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, weren’t you the one who came in late yesterday?”

Changbin’s cheeks heated at the memory. “Y-yeah. That was me.”

“Don’t worry about it much. Our professor seems really chill.”

Changbin nodded but didn’t respond. He felt bad for not recognizing the boy, but he hadn’t paid much attention to the other students’ introductions after his own.

“Are you a music major?” Yerim questioned the newcomer as more students began to fill the empty spots around the piano lab.

“Minor. I major in dance education.”

“Oh, my best friend is a dance major as well!” Changbin spoke up with a smile. He would have to ask Minho if he’d noticed the boy around.

Yerim sighed at the two, “Look at you guys, being so musically inclined and such! It must be nice. I’m just taking piano lessons to get my Arts credit.”

“Couldn’t you have just taken Music Appreciation for that?” Minhyuk asked, he couldn't believe someone would take a required course as an Arts elective.

“I _could_ have. But Wendy-unnie recommended something more hands-on for me since I get bored easily during lecture classes. And it never hurts to learn a new skill.”

“Fair enough,” Minhyuk agreed. Changbin had heard it already, the girl not one for leaving out even the tiniest detail, so he’d been told her entire schedule when they met.

They quieted down when their professor cleared her throat and instructed everyone to place their headsets on because that’s how she would be communicating with everyone as a whole. Changbin’s ears twitched when her voice came out of the speakers on his headset. He shared a look with Yerim that let him know she’d heard it, too and was just as surprised.

Changbin did his best to pay attention and relearn the proper techniques that had been lost due to his own laziness, but his fingers were quick and adapted faster than those around him.

The professor had tapped him on the shoulder not even halfway through the class. The other students had been working independently to fix their finger positions, but Changbin had gone ahead to the five-note scale and arpeggio exercises. He removed his headset and looked up at her expectantly.

“I’ve been observing you since you arrived during the last class. Dear, would you prefer to be moved up a level? It would be an easy switch your advisor can do it right now if you want.”

Changbin coughed a little, surprised at the sudden offer. “Well, it really depends. I checked the times of all the other piano labs, but they conflicted with my schedule for work and other classes.”

“Well, if you’d like to do some switching around and can find the space to squeeze in the intermediate level class, please let me know by next week. I’m afraid you would get too bored in this course, is all.”

Changbin gave the professor a tight smile and thanked her for the offer before she walked away to continue observing the other students. Yerim wiggled her eyebrows at him from where she sat across from him, but he shook his head at her. He already knew he wouldn’t be able to take the offer. While he _could_ just switch around some of his schedule, he decided that he wouldn’t. And it had absolutely nothing to do with a head of messy blonde waves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> newboii readers; hang in there~! you're next ^^
> 
> twitter: ash_tin OR changlixxed  
> cc: curiouscat.me/ashtin

**Author's Note:**

> so, yes so far?


End file.
